Backup Plan: Armageddon
by DelayedInspiration
Summary: The final chapter of the saga begins...
1. The Alpha

_The Alpha…_

_**It has been long enough.**_

_**The final chapter begins, and just in time for Christmas.**_

_**Without any further ado, **_**Backup Plan: ARMAGEDDON!**

**Disclaimer: **_Naruto_ and all affiliates are owned by Misashi Kishimoto, and _Percy Jackson and the Olympians _and all affiliates are owned by Rick Riordan.

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When Shin'en's eyes snapped open, his brain was awash in a tidal wave of information.

Firstly was the clothes on his body: it was not his usual outfit. Gone was his Akatsuki cloak, his pants, the pouches at his waist, the sandals and the legwarmers. In their place was what Shin'en decided was a set of shoulder pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, cleats, a cup against his crotch, a pad at his tailbone, and the pressure around his head coupled with the bars limiting his vision could only mean a helmet.

Sweet Jesus, he was wearing American football gear, and judging by everything he was seeing, he was on the field, and it was game night.

Two Planck seconds later, his hearing kicked in about the same time his hydro-sensing kicked in—and his nose as he took a breath, making him note with extreme confusion as to why the ai quality of New York was as clean and untainted as the Shinobi World—and he was thrown for a loop so wide at what he was registering, that he would've thought himself dreaming had he not literally been able to sense the water in the air, and the water in the people in the stands.

"Woo-hoo~! Go Percy~!"

Even amidst all the cheering already going on from the five thousand-plus crowd, Persephone still made her voice heard…from the sideline…where the _cheerleaders _were. Shin'en locked into investigating that area first, and he nearly fainted.

The cheer squad was totally consistent of demigoddesses, which meant that whatever high school this was—Goode, if Shin'en was correct—was seeing a cheer dream team that it would never see again. There was Persephone, Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, _Reyna_, _**Clarisse**_, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Katie and Miranda Gardner, Samirah al Abbas, Sadie Kane, and Zia Rashid.

And yes, it was Goode High School, as indicated by their uniforms.

_That_ combination didn't make a lick of sense to Shin'en, as confused as he already was, he was certain that during this time, in which they were all of high school age, all of those people should've been scattered across the continent. It got a whole lot worse when Shin'en directed his attention to the football team, and noted all the demigods present.

Currently on the field with him, and based on the arrangement, they were ready to perform the kick return, was Jason directly to his right, meaning that the son of Jupiter was KR2, and he, Shin'en, was KR1, and in front of them as the second line was Walt Stone, Carter Kane, Dakota, son of Bacchus, and Amir Fadlan, Samirah's betrothed. In the front line was Frank, Michael Kahale, Will Solace, Chris Rodriguez, and Travis Stoll.

Whoever the ball was about to be kicked to had a guaranteed touchdown, as none of the boys out here were mortals. No, Shin'en could tell by the magical energy coming off of them, and by how their DNA was literally incomplete—due to how acute his hydro-sensing really was—that they were all demigods.

Turning his attention to the sideline, Shin'en noted other demigods, and looking up in the stands, where the band was, he noted even more demigods, though those two areas were more heavily populated with mortal students. Also in the stands were the twelve Olympian gods, Hades, Hestia, and a whole host of other gods, most notably the goddess Persephone, Triton, and Amphitrite. The scariest part was that all of camps Half-Blood and Jupiter were there, and all of the demigods were sitting around their respective parents, and all the gods were getting along.

The Big Three weren't bickering amongst themselves, having a dick measuring contest. Zeus' godly sons weren't antagonizing their siblings but were playing nice. Hera wasn't moody and sour, and seemed to thoroughly enjoying the presence of her stepchildren. Amphitrite and Sally were chatting like old friends, as were Triton and—_Naruko. _

But not just the blonde, blue-eyed beauty, it was the _pregnant_ blonde, blue-eyed beauty, and with his acute godly senses, that child in her, six months along given the size, was _his_.

The anti-shinobi nearly fell over right then and there.

His body locked up, however, preventing from actually falling, due to the shock of yet another piece of information that added to this already confusing pile of puzzle pieces: there, hidden in the shadows on top of the stadium's humongous press box, were four black-clad individuals with grinning masks of alabaster white on their faces.

The sounds of all the cheering faded away, and Shin'en could only hear the sound of his heart thumping like the cadence of the far-outdated war drum used during the likes of the American Revolution.

_What _was going on here?

Where was he? An alternate dimension? He could feel the chakra running through his coils, strong as it ever was, and he could feel the chakra in Naruko, their baby, and in Yūrei, and he could feel the divine power brimming off the gods and demigods, and also up in the stands were Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, TJ Jr., Halfborn Gunderson, and Mallory Keen, all of them physically dead, all of them einherjar.

Greco-Romans, Egyptians, Norse—characters from all the books were here in this one spot, all apparently attending Goode High School, strongly indicating that Shin'en was somehow stuck in some High School AU—thankfully not a _mortal_ AU; if that were the case, he probably would've jumped the gun already and slaughtered the whole stadium—and he had no idea how he got here.

He had no idea how Naruko was here, and as to why she was pregnant, yeah, she and him had some very long, passionate nights of sex together after she found him and Akatsuki at the western border of the known world, but she couldn't have been so far along as she was, they had both taken steps to prevent a pregnancy in the first place.

As for Yūrei being _alive_, as for them being _here_, watching him play football in the presence of his overly extended family…that didn't make a lick of sense.

It was impossible. It was improbable. He had seen them beheaded, their heads mounted on pikes in public, and then he had destroyed their bodies in a justified episode of total fury. The fact that it was so wrong for them to be alive and well was what was blocking Shin'en from immediately leaping right up to them to tackle them all in a bone-crushing group hug.

An attosecond finally passed since Shin'en noted Yūrei's presence and had all of these inner thoughts, and something else finally occurred to him after he tried to remember what had happened earlier this day:

_He couldn't remember a single thing that happened this day._

That was _impossible_. He had an ever-active photographic memory and the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and with the countermeasures he had in place in the event of divine memory tampering, there was no way he could ever have amnesia, but that was just it: he remembered everything else.

Being at the orphanage, its destruction, his rampage, his dream, his time spent talking with Summer Rose in Remnant, his conversation with Susano'o, his training at the Cloud, Yugito, Killer Bee, Darui, Cee, the Third Raikage, Ay, the Fourth Raikage, Ei, his black-ops with Yūrei, his split personalities, Gatou, Kimiko, Sachiko, Amon, Hiyumi, Nanako, Saeko, and Shin. He remembered going back to the Cloud after killing Yagura, the Chunin Exams with Darui, Karui, and Omoi, the invasion, the battle with the Tailed-Beasts, all the shinobi, those he killed, the battle with Naruko and Sasuke, killing the Third Raikage, losing his arm, the period he was in his weakened state, amassing power, all the dimensional adventures he went on, the little twins that were his children, Ryuk, high school and the grocery store with Asteria, Annabeth, Hunter, and Gabe in the _Xenophobic _world, his return to the godly world to fight the Titans, his sixteenth birthday, his return to the Ninja World and borderline take-over of Akatsuki, training with those monsters, Naruko's arrival, the consummation of their love, and finally came the time to put everything into motion.

Naruko departed for the Leaf, Sasori and Deidara for the Hidden Sand, Hidan and Kakuzu for the Hidden Waterfall, he and Kisame for the Hidden Stone, Tobi and Zetsu for where reports of the Three-Tails were coming from, and Pain and Konan for where the Six-Tails Jinchuuriki was rumored to be. After that…

It was all blank.

Shin'en heard a low, slow sound, and it took him a second to realize that it was the referee blowing the whistle to start the game, and a whole new rush of questions ran through Shin'en's mind:

How was he supposed to behave?

What was he like?

Was he soft, couldn't hurt a fly?

Or was he like he usually was?

Really, all of these questions and more could be bunched under this one umbrella question: who was he in the apparent alternate dimension?

With the football rapidly spiraling through the air, coming right at him, Shin'en concluded that he was just going to have to wing it, pay attention to the crowd, and react accordingly. He was going to have to "put this game away," as the phrase went, meaning rack up enough points to where he could be pulled from the game and the backups could finish it out, leaving him ample time to think.

Shin'en caught the ball and was off, doing his absolute best to keep it at a believable speed for a teenager, and not turn anyone into tapioca with a slight shoulder check.

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_**Since the last chapter of **_**Blood War **_**contained both the epilogue for itself, and the prologue for this story, that gave me pass to simply jump right on into what you just read.**_

_**Confused?**_

_**I can understand why, but just go back over what's there: Persephone, the gods getting along with their children, Naruko being there and pregnant, Y**__**ū**__**rei's alive…all things Shin'en's desperately wanted.**_

_**Think about it for a bit, but the answer will become clear next chapter, which'll be out after Christmas but before New Year's, I promise. **_

_**With all that being said, this is my Christmas gift to all of you, so Merry Christmas!**_


	2. For Narrative Purposes

_For Narrative Purposes_

_**I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you all kept in mind what the actual true meaning of Christmas is.**_

_**Now, more details for this story.**_

_**I'm thinking it's not going to be very long. Certainly not as long as the 84-chapter monster that **_**Backup Plan **_**is, and not as long as the 54-chapter **_**Blood War**_**. I doubt this'll get over 20 chapters, because there's no reason for me to make it that long, and I can't find any way to stretch it, especially when I don't have to.**_

_**It tells the story of Shin'en and Akatsuki doing their thing to bring world peace in a way that doesn't involve mass genocide, and that's only because Persephone doesn't want her brother to kill any more people than he already has, and another reason that'll be specified herein.**_

_**I'm also going to give every single one of you an emotional vibe check at the end of this story.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own PJO or Naruto

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_October 10, 1017 years after the Sage of Six Paths (A.S.)_

_Hidden Leaf Village_

When Naruko left on her training trip with Jiraiya, it was only supposed to be for two and a half years, leaving in October—just a few days after her birthday, actually, after waking up from a small coma due to the injuries sustained in combat with Shin'en when he was on his emotionally unstable rampage—which would've put them back in the Leaf some time in April of 1016. However, Naruko had ditched Jiraiya nearly at the turn of the year, and spent a few months looking for a certain someone until she found him and several others at the edge of the world.

And with them she stayed until a month ago, learning, training, and loving, when it was decided that the time to begin was now.

Naruko counted herself blessed that she was the lover of the most powerful shinobi currently walking the earth right now, because it was only through that bond that the Infinite Tsukuyomi wasn't already active, the Tailed-Beasts sealed and the Jinchuuriki all but extinct. Naruko didn't like the Akatsuki's plan; it seemed to her a cheat, a cop-out, an escape from taking on the real problem, and it was a sentiment shared by Konan, Naruko's confidant in the Akatsuki besides her lover, but since her lover's alternative was simply mass genocide, something that would undoubtedly solve all of the world's problems, Naruko was willing to relent.

Just somewhat, on the grounds of a wager.

There were reports from the Hidden Leaf, and the world at large, of a massive movement against Naruko's lover, with hearts around the world turning bitter and cold. It wasn't that Naruko didn't believe them—she did, wholeheartedly—it was that she believed she could turn those hearts back.

They were her beloved childhood friends after all. They had been to everyone's birthday party, had sleepovers, went on playdates together. While it was the machinations and manipulations of their parents that put them all in the same room, you could still bring a horse to water, but can't make it drink. Naruko and all the other clan heirs became friends because they all liked each other.

Their bond used to be so strong.

Naruko recalled nearly all the times she and the girls, Ino, Hinata, and Sakura because she was friends with them, had girls-only sleepovers, and because Ino was last in the potty training race because she couldn't stop bedwetting until she was nine, Naruko and the other girls would all put on Ino's pull-ups to make her feel better, and none of them would have anything to drink three hours before bedtime, all in a show of support for Ino's sake.

It was Naruko's idea to do all of that, and it still brought a smile to her face every time she remembered those simple days when she was naïve and innocent and didn't see any kind of embarrassment or humiliation in wearing a training diaper to help her friend feel better about herself.

It was the memories of those times that gave Naruko hope that she could turn her friends around from their current ways, and if she could turn them around, then she could do the same to village, and even the world.

_That_ was the wager.

If Naruko could get her once-close friends to relent from their vengeance, then the Akatsuki would call off Project Tsuki no Me and assist Naruko in her quest. Considering the power of those individuals, having their help in any endeavor was an undeniably tremendous boon. However, if Naruko failed, and the heirs of the Leaf were dead set on destroying everything just for the slim chance at getting to Naruko's lover, then the Akatsuki would proceed with Project Tsuki no Me, and the world would forever be at peace.

A false peace was Naruko's argument, but a peace nonetheless was the counterargument.

Whatever the case, she certainly had her work cut out for her.

You didn't need to be an empath like she was to feel just how wrong the Hidden Leaf had become. Ten miles out, the sky became a dreary overcast, in no way a peaceful or serene blanket of grey. It got abnormally cold for this early in October. Being the Land of Fire, it didn't get this kind of cold until December or January. Then there was the very air itself: still, stiff, heavy, unwelcoming.

Not to mention the trees.

The story went that the First Hokage made the entirety of the forests surrounding the Hidden Leaf to act as a man-made natural protective barrier. They were huge trees, bigger than anything in the Sequoia National Park, with branches bigger than some other species of trees. The leaves on them were huge, full, and vibrating with life, hence the name:

Village Hidden in the Leaves.

They were evergreen trees, meaning that even in the winter they still maintained their green leaves. Now though, these trees looked sick and dying. The strong, brown bark was no withered and pale. The leaves, powerful and vibrant, were now weak, their colors dull. Many of the trees were even approaching a barren state, so many of their leaves having fallen to the ground, something that Naruko had never seen before in her life.

It was eerie and almost scary, certainly a testament to how far down the Leaf had fallen.

With so many leaves missing from the trees, Naruko felt like she was walking through a graveyard of giants.

The clack of her geta sandals was the only sound she could hear, and considering how acute she could make her hearing, the fact that she could only hear her sandals was rather concerning. No animals scurrying through the trees, nothing out there hunting or slithering, not even a breeze.

Naruko was kinds bummed there wasn't a breeze, because her kimono couldn't epically flutter.

Her outfit and overall appearance had gone through some changes since her time with the Akatsuki. She wasn't the jumpsuit anymore, mainly because she had outgrown it, but with Konan's weaving skills, she could've adjusted the dimensions, but Naruko turned her down. Instead, the Jinchuuriki was now wearing burnt orange pants of a loose-fitting nature, some simple bindings to keep her chest under control, and as stated a kimono. It was the same burnt orange as her pants, the sleeves loose and long, going past her hands, and across the shoulders and down the seems it was black. Naruko kept the left lapel crossed over the right above her chest in a show of decency, and kept the whole garment tied with a black sash.

Her blonde hair was still vibrant as ever, but it wasn't in pigtails anymore. She had three distinct bangs, one going down between her eyes, and two framing her face. The rest of hair went cascading down to her shoulder blades. Her eyes were different, though, having taken a fall. With all that Jiraiya had showed her of the seedy side of the Ninja World—the prostitution, slavery, gladiator fights, etc.—and with all that Akatsuki had taught her, her eyes were no longer the sparkling sapphire they once were, but were now a hard, dispassionate cobalt.

When Naruko got close enough to her home that her empathy kicked in, she let out a hard breath.

'_Kurama, do you think we can do it? Turn my friends around?'_

'_**No.'**_

'_Your confidence is uplifting. Truly, you are a master of motivation.'_

'_**Indeed. You stand to gain much from my council.'**_

'_Much depression.'_

'_**Wisdom comes with a price.'**_

'_Ignorance is bliss.'_

'_**The sun is yellow.'**_

'_Grass is green.'_

'_**This village sucks.'**_

'_You're a furry.'_

'_**You can't wipe your ass well enough to prevent skid marks from appearing in your panties.'**_

'_That was when I was little!'_

'_**I was awoken from my nap just three weeks back when you were freaking out over your underwear having a stain in the seat.'**_

'_It was just a little one! I wasn't in a hurry and thought I got it all! Besides, you know __why__ I was freaking out.'_

'_**Still a stain in your panties, but yes, I know why you were freaking out. Your mother often had such episodes when pregnant with you.'**_

The mirth totally faded from Naruko as her hand came to rest reverently on her naval. _'Do you think he knows?'_

'_**He can read entire lines of DNA simply because of their sheer proximity to water molecules. I do believe he can also sense that you are with child, albeit less than two weeks.'**_

'_Makes things a lot more dangerous, doesn't it?'_

'…_**I am with you, Naruko. Always.'**_

'_Thanks, Kurama.'_

The mighty Nine-Tails gave a hum and went back to his semi-slumber.

In front of Naruko loomed the humongous—closed—gates of the Hidden Leaf Village, and the Jinchuuriki took a breath. Time to face the music.

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Minato was on the other side of that gate. He had been going over paperwork when an ANBU reported to him that a young woman strongly believed to be Naruko Namikaze was approaching the village at a walk. Minato should've been ecstatic that his daughter was finally home after being missing for over a year now, and it was even her birthday, true to her letter, but all he felt was stress.

As her father, yes, he was very happy to know she was back, but as the Hokage, well…

Minato recalled the letter he received from Jiraiya years ago that spoke of Naruko having wet dreams, she was going through puberty after all, and that the Sannin strongly suspected that they weren't revolving around Sasuke or any other Hidden Leaf boy, but that Naruko was dreaming of…_him_.

The very thought of _him_ made Minato's blood quicken and his teeth grind.

It was because of this suspicion that the Fourth Hokage had not been totally looking forward to his daughter returning, and this unsanctioned leave she took, just up and ditching Jiraiya for over a year to parts unknown with who knows who, only added to the worry Minato had.

As the Hokage, the whole village was his family, and it was his duty to protect his family, even from its own members. If Naruko had romantic feelings for _him_, or, gods forbid, was actually _involved_ with _him_, and that's where she had been for the past year, with _him_, then Minato would have no choice but to execute his own daughter for high treason. He didn't want to—oh _gods_ did he not want to—but he had to.

In the name of duty as Hokage.

In the name of his family, the village.

Minato already didn't want to ship Naruko off to Ibiki in the Torture and Interrogation facility, but it was a must—standard procedure, even, for shinobi that went AWOL. The thought of that horrifying man, feared across the world for his methods and results, being in a cell alone with his baby and dozens of wicked instruments made Minato's toes curl, but it was something he had to.

He couldn't afford to play favorites as the Hokage, not even for his own daughter.

Still, it was probably for the best that Kushina never found out about any of this.

The gates opened with a loud groan, and there she was. Taller, obviously, her body mass was difficult to discern with how loose her pants and kimono were, but if Minato had to guess, she was all muscle under those clothes. Looking into her eyes, his heart broke. She used to have such beautiful, sparkling eyes. Now they were a hard, disinterested cobalt, making Minato wonder just what she had seen in her time away.

He could also tell that, like him, she was happy to see him, but she knew how much trouble she was in.

"Genin Namikaze."

"Lord Hokage."

"You are under arrest for abandoning your station and are suspected of consorting with the enemy." ANBU appeared on either side of Naruko, gabbing her arms. "You will be taken in for questioning. Do not resist."

"I surrender."

Minato nodded. "Good." He nodded at the ANBU, and they all vanished in a swirl of leaves as they all utilized the Teleportation Jutsu.

Why it was called teleportation, no one knew, as it was just really high-speed movement, but the late Shisui had been good at it, so eh.

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When Naruko arrived in her cell, she was immediately slammed by a wave of nausea, fatigue, and vertigo. So debilitated was she, that she couldn't put up any resistance—not that she ever intended to in the first place—when the ANBU strapped her onto a cold, flat, metal table that was obviously not designed for comfort.

Their job done, the ANBU vanished, seemingly completely unaffected by whatever was going in this cell.

Naruko had never really paid much attention to how her chakra flowed, other than her genjutsu training with her lover, but right now, she could feel how sluggish it was, how much effort it was exerting trying to move through her coils. It felt like something was blocking the movement, weighing on it and making it flow like molasses on a freezing day. Despite how icky she felt due to her chakra flow being hampered, Naruko mentally focused in and buckled down, using sheer will to overcome her newfound ailment.

Another part of her training with the Akatsuki.

With the clarity afforded by mind over matter, Naruko took note of her surroundings. A boring white floor, a big, bright overhead light, the table she was strapped to was attached to an apparatus that obviously allowed for the table to move, and the walls were a boring grey. However, the walls were also _covered_ in Sealing Jutsu, which explained her chakra.

With what experience she had in Seals, Naruko determined that this was the work of a master. More than that, she recognized the handwriting of her father, and of her Sannin sensei. She also recognized several of the Seals and knew their function. Draining Seals, Restriction Seals, Sensory Deprivation Seals, Overflow Seals, Direction Seals, etc. Obviously, this room was designed specifically for detaining very powerful shinobi.

_Very_ powerful shinobi.

Like, S+ class shinobi.

Naruko herself was far from weak. In fact, she had been born powerful, the Uzumaki genes of her mother, and while her father was a clanless civilian by birth, he had shaped his body into something powerful. All of that flowed into Naruko as she developed, and so from the start did she enjoy copious amounts of Yang chakra produced by her genetically sound body. Over the years that grew, as did her Yang chakra, that generated by the strength of her mind, especially in the past year with the Akatsuki. Effectively, Naruko, very much like Yagura, was a Kage-level shinobi all by herself, on top of being host to a Tailed-Beast.

The most powerful Tailed-Beast at that.

And yet, for all her power, all that immense strength and that veritable ocean of chakra that ran through her body, these Sealing formulas were powerful enough to render her nearly as helpless as a civilian.

It made Naruko wonder if this room had been built many years prior to her birth and was specifically intended for the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki in case she got too rampant, or if this room was tailor-made for her, or if it was for her lover.

Thinking of him made Naruko wonder what effect this room would have on him. As immensely powerful as she was, these Seals were effective enough to make her feel like she was made of lead. If she had to guess, she'd say that they would affect him, but not to the same degree they affected her. She couldn't even get her chakra to flow, couldn't push it—hell, she couldn't even call upon Kurama right now—but those Overflow and Direction Seals…Naruko could only assume that they were there in the event that whoever in here did overpower the Seals, they would activate and start siphoning the excess chakra, and divert it to other places.

In fact, now that Naruko did another examination, she noted the Relay Seals, meaning that this whole system was self-sustaining, running off the chakra it steadily sucked out of the occupant.

The ANBU weren't affected, so Naruko concluded that the part of the matrix she couldn't see, the part behind her as the table was raised at an angle, included a piece that nullified its own effects should someone be wearing a specific Seal, or be outputting a specific frequency of chakra, or their chakra was keyed to the matrix so that they were immune.

Whatever the case, Naruko was stuck here with only her wits.

She wondered if she'd be released to go the bathroom, or if she was expected to just soil herself and either left to stew in the mess and deal with the smell, or if someone would come and clean her up.

Whatever the case, Naruko felt a new, albeit small, sense of urgency bubble in her.

It was just after these thoughts that she heard the steady creaking of a door in desperate need of lubricant, followed by the sound of creaky cart wheels being slowly pushed across the floor by someone intentionally making their footfalls heavy, adding a dull, rhythmic boom to the cacophony, which also included metallic rattling, like dozens of small tools, no doubt interrogation instruments bouncing about on top of the cart.

From the corner of her right eye, Naruko saw none other than Ibiki Morino, clad in the same outfit back in Chunin Exam four years ago, pushing a surgeon's tray, upon which were the appropriate tools. When the scared man came into view, he locked eyes with Naruko and didn't break contact the whole time he pushed his cart where he wanted, and then stopped, and then he continued to stare at her as the door slowly creaked back shut.

The Jonin before Naruko had a reputation the world over, being something of a dark shadow in the otherwise sunny visage of the Hidden Leaf. Known for surviving brutal torture himself, Ibiki was also widely known for his own methods of torture, revolving mostly around attacking the mind and psyche than the body, but he certainly didn't shy away from mutilating flesh.

As far as methods and morals went in regards to getting information, Ibiki had no restrain or limitations. He'd tear apart little kids, adolescents, tweens, teens, adults, and the elderly. He cared not for gender, employing different methods depending on the sex, but no less brutal on either. Jiraiya had taught Naruko well regarding the fearsome Ibiki Morino: about the only thing he didn't do was sexual torture.

At least, not with his fingers or penis. Shoving sharp objects up your holes? A last ditch effort for only the most suborn subjects, but still nothing her shied away from.

Still, Ibiki Morino was _nothing_ to the likes of Hidan, whose official story was that he was a rogue ninja from the Land of Hot Water, hailing from the unoriginally named Village Hidden in Hot Water, who became enraged by his village's turning from a shinobi operation to a tourist trap based on the hot springs, and proceeded to slaughter practically the whole village before going rogue and adopting Jashinism.

In truth, Hidan had been walking the earth since the time of the Sage of Six Paths, a devoted priest to the slaughter god Jashin, apparently the father of both Shinigami and Yomi, whose religion revolved entirely around pain and death. For over a thousand years Hidan had been killing, torturing, maiming, and conducting massive, grotesque rituals in the name of his god, and he had no problem detailing his escapades to Naruko in the hopes that she would convert.

Of course Hidan was one thing, Tobi—not the Tobi with the orange mask—the actual _son _of Jashin, as Naruko had seen from her lover's memories when they spared and their chakra clashed, and from the dreams and stories he shared with her, was an absolute _monster_ of a boy.

The worst part was that literally none of it was his fault, since his nature as the son of the slaughter god was appropriate, and his nurture had been so much worse, leading to a broken, insane little savage that thought of slicing out testicles and ovaries from a person still awake and breathing in the same light that a child thought of their birthday.

Having witnessed the atrocities that Hidan and Jashin's son had committed, this Cueball of a torturer didn't scare Naruko in the slightest.

"We'll keep this simple," Ibiki said. "I'll ask a question, and I'll get the right answer." He held up a cutthroat razor that was rusty and serrated. "Eventually."

He approached Naruko.

"Have you been consorting with Hidden Leaf Enemy Number One?"

"Consorting is a bit of a strong word, but I've certainly interacted with him during my time away."

"In what ways?"

Naruko managed a dispassionate shrug. "Killed him."

Ibiki actually completely halted. "You did what now?"

"I felt that Percy Sage taught me all he could, so I left him in search of things that he couldn't. Didn't really have a plan, just wondered from place to place, made camp, ate, bathed, peed, pooped, went through my period, did laundry, masturbated from time to time, killed some people here and there, and eventually found myself at the edge of the world, having gotten _totally_ lost, and found an organization of S-rank missing ninja, called themselves the Akatsuki.

"Fell right in with them and learned a whole lot that Pervy Sage certainly couldn't teach me—or wouldn't be willing to, anyway—and got super strong. They've got a simple idea: get as powerful as they can, make as much money as they can, and then run away as fast as they can, retire, and live the rest of their days peacefully. Considering Shi—"

"_Don't say his name!" _Ibiki hissed.

"Considering how much money He Who Must Not Be Named was worth, we went after him, found him, fought him, killed him, turned in his corpse, got our money and divided it evenly, and I thought that was enough for me and it was getting close to my deadline anyway, so I bid the Akatsuki goodbye, came back, and was thrown in here by ANBU on the orders of my own dad, on my birthday no less."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ibiki stood there, shocked to the core.

He'd been working this job since before the Third Great Ninja War broke out, and he perfected his trade during that time. He'd broken the staunchest, hardest, coldest, stubbornest, and insane-ist shinobi the world had never heard of, because those shinobi did their job and stuck to the shadows, not making flashy jutsu and becoming famous. Ibiki knew by heart and instinct if someone was lying to him, knew if they were under a genjutsu, or if they were under some good old-fashioned hypnotism.

He detected none of the above in Naruko, which meant one of two things:

She was either completely delusional, whole-heartedly believing that she had received training from an organization of S-rank rogue ninja—a terrifying notion in and of itself that was going to be explored very soon—and aided them in killing the most wanted man on the planet, being so convinced of this fact that she was unaware that she was unintentionally lying, or she was completely in line with the truth of the universe, and had in fact partaken in killing _him_, which meant that Naruko was effectively a hero.

The hard part was proving Naruko's story.

Killing an entry in the Bingo Book and collecting the reward wasn't necessarily an advertised practice, as it painted a rather large target on your back that was looked at by those that had claimed the hunt for themselves and would now gun after you for retribution, or by those that had a personal vendetta against the entry, and would then go after you out of vengeance and fury for stealing their rightful kill. It was so deadly, operating out of the Bingo Book, that sometimes entries wouldn't be updates for years out of the fear that one particular entry vanishing would cause an absolute uproar, potentially even a war.

So, even if _he _was now dead, and considering just how many people the world over wanted his head, there was a distinct possibility that the Bingo Book wouldn't reflect his deceased status for the next hundred years.

However, there were way of confirming the death of the entry. There had to be, elsewise valuable resources could be spent in a vain, several-year-long search.

"Which-" Ibiki's voice cracked, coming out as a high-pitched squeak reminisce of a kitten, then he cleared his throat and readopted his rumbling base. "Which office did you report him to?"

"The one in the Hidden Stone. Ohnoki wasn't really happy to see me, but there wasn't much he could do in the face of so many other S-classers being with me, especially with You Know Who's corpse with us. Man, he was really stinky. You'd think the son of a god would have some kind of post-mortem magical decency, but nah. He smelled just as bad as any other dead body."

"Uh-huh…" Ibiki's head was still swimming, but he was beginning to tread water.

Some things were beginning to seem off.

"This Akatsuki…S-class rogue ninja…who are they, and where are they at?"

"Kakuzu of the Hidden Waterfall, Hidan, priest of Jashin, Deidara the Stone Bomber, Sasori of the Red Sands, Zetsu of the Hidden Grass, Orochimaru, Kisame Hoshigaki, Tobi, Konan of the Hidden Rain, and their leader, Pain, who has the Rinnegan. He delivered the killing blow to You Know Who."

Ibiki tried not to faint.

He knew most of those terms. Kakuzu was infamous for having fought the First Hokage and lived, though he vanished after that battle, presumed dead from injuries, quietly retired, or killed in another battle and his death unreported. Jashin was a name Ibiki knew, and he knew enough about the religion to know that any follower was not human. Deidara gained fame in the last days of the Third Great Ninja War, but went rogue after, stole a forbidden jutsu, did some terrorist work, and then vanished. Sasori was also a familiar name, the Hidden Sand's foremost puppeteer since the late Lady Chiyo, but he vanished after the Second Great Ninja War. Zetsu was a name Ibiki didn't know, but if he was S-class, whatever Hidden Village he came from was irrelevant. Orochimaru was certainly known, though there hadn't been any reports on the rogue Sannin in years. Kisame was also an infamous name, being the Tailless Tailed-Beast, though he disappeared before the end of the Blood War. Ibiki didn't have a clue as to who Tobi, Konan, or Pain were supposed to be, but he knew the legends surrounding the Rinnegan, and if any of them were true, and this Pain guy had that eye, then it made perfect sense as to how he could wrangle and keep hidden so many dangerous and powerful shinobi.

While Ibiki hadn't expected this interrogation to be a hard one, this was the daughter of Lord Hokage, after all, and it wasn't like she was expected of actual treason, just a little bit of an unsanctioned vacation, typical of a teenage girl to just go off and do her own thing, it was still SOP to go through some rudimentary questions with all the seriousness of an actual interrogation.

Never in all his years had Ibiki found himself drowning in _this_ much crucial information.

Some ambush intel, or the notes on a new jutsu, sure, but an organization of S-Class rogues, most of them absolutely infamous, most of them thought dead, or at the very least, missing, operating in secret under the leadership of a man that apparently had the eyes of the gods themselves was a treasure trove of information that was going to have the Hidden Leaf busy for months.

"So, um…what else…what else do you know about…about this Akatsuki?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the observation room, Minato was feeling the happiest he had felt in years.

His baby _wasn't _a traitor.

She _wasn't_ consorting with the enemy.

She was a thricefold _hero_: being the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails was heroic by default, she had stopped _him_ four years ago during the Chunin Exam, and now she had _killed_ him! Sure, they were going to have to send an envoy to the Hidden Stone to confirm, and there was going to have to be thorough investigating into this Akatsuki, if only because so many famous criminals were among their ranks, and Minato was going to have to talk to Jiraiya about the Rinnegan, since the Hokage remembered his sensei telling him about these three kids he once trained in the Land of Rain, one of which was reported to have the eye in question.

Right now, though, Minato was just so over the moon that his daughter was back home, safe, sound, and _not _a traitor, that he was completely oblivious to certain conveniences in Naruko's story.

Like how in the Akatsuki there was Orochimaru, a man notorious for his independence, or how they found _him_ in the first place when he was presumed dead in the fight against the insane Third Raikage, and no one had seen or heard anything of him in all these years, or how it was awfully convenient of the Akatsuki to cash in at the Hidden Stone, the village furthest away from the Leaf, and the one with the most animosity towards the Leaf, meaning it was going to be a bitch to get some confirmation on _his _death from the old Tsuchikage, and Minato might still get back lies, just out of spite.

The Fourth Hokage didn't think of anything of this, as we was fully wrapped in the embrace of relieved happiness.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Since it was her birthday and she was in the clear in regards to suspected criminal activities, Naruko was released from her bonds and was given a great big hug from her dad who told her that he would be off work in a few hours and that the family would get together to celebrate the day.

Naruko was genuinely thrilled at that, and once she was out of everyone's earshot as she made her way through the village to go and see her childhood friends, she started muttering curses under her breath.

"I swear to God that if I just lost my baby because of the funky chakra dungeon, I am going ass-rape everyone and everything in this village with Nine-Tails chakra until they fucking die, and then I'm going to raze this place to kingdom come and wipe out the ashes, so that the only thing left of the Hidden Leaf is a barren circle."

'_**My chakra is not to be used for nonconsensual sexual purposes.'**_

'_Your chakra is going to be used for whatever the hell I say it's going to be used, fuzzbutt! If that means going Version Two and making a chakra-dick, then I damn well will!'_

'_**Damn well will? Such grammar, much threaten. Very wow.'**_

'_Shut up, stupid meme fox!'_

If there was one thing that both irritated and made Kurama's day, it was when his Jinchuuriki was pregnant. Sure, they were absolutely ridiculous during this time, but man were they so much fun and so easy to tease and get a rise out of.

Naruko's lover introducing them to "meme culture" was just the kind of ammunition the Nine-Tailed Fox needed to make the rest of his days very enjoyable ones.

Anyway, Naruko went to all the clan compounds in the hopes that she could see her old friends, but at every single one, even after telling the sentries who she was and what her relationship with the current clan head was—or used to be, as it were—she was still denied access. More than that, none of the guards at any compound even bothered to go inside and inform their lord or lady to Naruko's presence, merely turning her away with a stern glare and a hard voice.

"Lord/Lady (insert name here) has asked not to be disturbed. Leave."

Not even Hinata had come out to see Naruko, which rather burned the blonde, so she went back to where her home was, removed from the rest of the village, but no less protected. The interior hadn't changed at all in her absence, all the furniture was the same, and in the same places, too.

However, furniture wasn't Naruko's concern. Instead, she was more focused on the smells and emotions she was picking up from upstairs, centered around her little brother's room. In less than a second Naruko was there, and she kicked the door wide open, startling the two occupants.

Naruko entered to find Menma and Konohamaru both shirtless, with Menma's pants pulled down to his thighs, at full mast, glistening with saliva. Konohamaru had a little bit drool on his face.

"Na-Naruko…" Menma stuttered, his mismatched eyes wide in terror. Konohamaru not faring any better.

Without a word, Naruko grabbed the grandson of the Third Hokage and hurled him out the window, tossing the rest of his clothes after him. Menma yanked his pants back up.

"I-It's not what you think, I promise!"

Naruko slowly turned around, one blonde brow raised.

The light was off, so the only luminance in the room was provided by the dreary overcast outside. In the low-light, with the way the filtered sun was coming in, Naruko's front was shadowed, her blue eyes nearly glowing, something that made Menma gulp.

"So that wasn't Konohamaru and you doing things that thirteen-year-old boys shouldn't be doing?"

"We're fourteen."

Oh. Whoops. But irrelevant.

"Do Mom and Dad know about you and Kono?"

"They…they know we've been together for a year now…"

"Do they know you're having sex?"

"No…"

Naruko stared down her nose at Menma, making him squirm, embarrassed and mortified.

"Have either of you gone to the doctor to make sure you're both clean, nothing hidden in either of your genes that'll make the other sick?"

"Well, no…"

Naruko sighed. "How long have you two been doing…this?"

"This was actually our first time."

Naruko stared at him. "You were going to have sex with Kono on my birthday?"

Menma's mouth dropped. "Today's the tenth? I'm so sorry, I totally forgot!"

Naruko hummed, and after a few silent moments of Menma shuffling from foot to foot, she said, "No sex within a hundred miles of me, got it?"

Menma blinked. "You…you're okay with me and Kono?"

"Absolutely not. He'll be pushing up daisies if I find out he's cheating on you, of if he breaks your heart in any way. And _you _will be extra sorry if I find out you're cheating on him, got it?"

"G-Got it."

"Now get over here and give your big sister a hug. She's missed you."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kushina wasn't home, elsewise Menma and Konohamaru wouldn't have been bold enough to even touch each other, and when Naruko got to the privacy of her room, still decorated and furnished in accordance to her thirteen-year-old tastes, she released the shudders that had wanted to go crawling up her spine.

Menma was a clone created by Danzo using Naruko's DNA, a dead Uchiha's DNA, Orochimaru's research and leftover equipment, and some residual Nine-Tails chakra, all in the endeavor of creating his personal secret weapon. Minato found out about it, rescued Menma before his training could start, and where Danzo was able to escape indictment due to destroyed evidence, the Namikaze family gained a new member who was integrated as the little brother.

Naruko didn't find out about Menma's origins until a few months ago, and knowing what she did now made her wonder if Menma was more of her son than her little brother. Whatever the case, Konohamaru was certainly her little brother _figure_, and whatever Menma was supposed to be, son or brother, it was still awkward for Naruko to put those two together in her head as a couple.

They were also both boys, and the thought of them engaging in any kind of intercourse also made Naruko's toes curl on principle.

'_**What an absolute disgrace.'**_

'_Hey, that's my brother you're talking about.'_

'_**Still a disgrace.'**_

'_He was the one getting sucked on first.'_

'_**And his mannerisms indicate that he is the submissive in the relationship, effectively making him the girl, meaning that he wasn't getting **__**sucked on**__**, as you put it, but more that he was getting **__**eaten out**__**.'**_

'_Thanks a lot for that imagery, it doesn't make this any weirder than what it already is, my actual little brother having a sexual relationship with my unofficial little brother.'_

'_**Could be worse. Your mother could've been getting screwed on the couch by Jiraiya, making her not only unfaithful, but really, really naughty, having sex with her husband's teacher, and you and I know both know that Jiraiya and Tsunade are more than just your godparents.'**_

'_Yeah, don't remind me. It makes that image you just painted a whole lot more worse.'_

'_**Just keeping it real.'**_

'_Well, stop keeping it real. You're supposed to be Kurama, the mighty Nine-Tailed Fox that can cause earthquakes and tsunamis with simple sweeps of his tails, the strongest of all Tailed-Beasts, the guardian pet of Yomi himself, worshipped as the god of chaos and destruction by some cults, and viewed as a divine punisher sent from on high by other cults.'_

'_**Don't stop now, I'm almost there,' **_Kurama said sarcastically.

'_Not some perverted chakra thing!'_

'_**Hey, us chakra things have feelings and desires too.'**_

'_You don't even have genitals!'_

'_**That you've seen. I'll have you know that the Two-Tails and I went at it so hard, that we-'**_

'_You can shut up now!'_

'_**Oh? So I have to be forced to watch as you as your baby daddy go at it for 77 straight hours without stopping for even a glass of water or to take a leak, but I'm not aloud to boast about my own exploits?'**_

'_Kurama!'_

'_**Fine, fine. I suppose we can talk more about these things when you're a big girl that can wipe her butt correctly and not get poo-poo stains in her Shinobi Princess undies.'**_

'_Kurama~…' _Naruko mentally growled, face nearly glowing.

If there was one thing that she did appreciate about her tenant, it was that he did know when to back off when Naruko got frustrated enough with his newfound antics, and bring his presence back within the confines of the Seal, leaving Naruko to her own thoughts.

Of course, her own thoughts were hardly pleasant anymore.

Resting a hand over her uterus, and invoking just a tad bit of Sage Mode, a practice that had become as easy as tree-climbing and water-walking, Naruko felt the life slowly developing within her. Letting the natural chakra leave her system before she became aware of things happening in the Leaf that she wanted no knowledge of, Naruko reflected on things.

She was pregnant with Percy's child.

She had pulled off the most elaborate lie in her life, and it was no doubt going to bite her ass later, but at least she had time to plan for it.

The Leaf was in a dystopian state.

Minato was becoming mentally ill, and would no doubt break when he learned of her betrayal.

She was going to be more or less interviewed extensively in the coming days about the Akatsuki.

And while all of this was happening, the Akatsuki was on the move, taking the necessary steps to ensure the success of Project Tsuki no Me.

Percy's idea was to activate the jutsu, where he would be immune to it with his half-divine status, and with this world at peace, he would take her and they would leave for Persephone's world, and find something to do with themselves from there. It was short, it was sweet, and it was simple.

With the promise of that kind of life, Naruko was often left wondering why she even bothered with this personal mission of hers.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**Yes, Christmas was indeed spectacular for me. Got the **_**Ben 10 **_**collection up to the end of Alien Force. The search continues for Ultimate Alien, and I care not for Omniverse or whatever embarrassment of a remake was made recently. Also got **_**Redline**_**, the racing anime with the pompadour guy, **_**Godzilla**_**, and season three of **_**Young Justice**_**.**_

_**I also now have six of the nine **_**Maximum Ride **_**books, I just need the other three, and I have Granddad building me a new shelf to put all of these movies and books on. Got a new fishing rod, unhealthy amounts of candy, a tub of caramel popcorn, a whole bunch of wholesome family memories, and you guys get a new chapter of **_**Armageddon**_**!**_

_**Which, "for narrative purposes" will be going forward through **_**Shippuden**_** until we get back to where we were last chapter. Considering I just cranked out 7k in the uninterrupted timespan of about six hours, we might just get there sometime next June.**_

_**Finishing my and all.**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	3. All the Pain, None of the Gain

_All the Pain, None of the Gain_

_**To the Guest who asked if I would do a Percy/Witcher story…unfortunately no. I tried playing the third game, and couldn't get into it. So, I have barely any knowledge of lore, powers, armor, locations, weapons, etc. I'm sorry to disappoint.**_

_**I also see that we're going to be stingy with numbers on this story, but I think that's typical of fanfic trilogies. People fall off during the first story, and then of those that stay for the second, more fall off, and by the time we reach the third, only a few devotees remain.**_

_**So, this story goes out to those that were there at the beginning, over four years ago when **_**Backup Plan**_**, **_**Xenomorphic**_**, and **_**Leviathan **_**were just fledgling stories, and this goes to those that stumbled across me and have stuck with it from there.**_

_**Thank you, all of you, for your support over the years.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Land of Wind_

_October 11, 1017 A. S._

The mostly desert country was not a very hospitable place for life, so those that did make this sand box their home were of a very special breed. Of course, there were those in the world that could brave the sun and storms without a problem, and these descriptions applied to the two figures approaching the Hidden Sand Village, the former to the red-haired on, and the latter to the blonde.

"Sasori-my-man, have you noticed how our hair colors make us like a derivative of Minato and Kushina?"

"I have, Deidara. I find it disturbing, however, that you would put that observation to mouth, as it implies that you would seek intercourse with me."

"Heh, never. I've never been a fan of splinters, anyway."

"Your specialty is explosions, putting yourself in the way of deadly shrapnel, and you fear splinters?"

"I didn't say I _feared _splinters. I said I wasn't a _fan_ of splinters."

"Your semantics are unconvincing. I shall forever remember this conversation as the one where I learned the Mad Bomber is afraid of little wooden pieces."

"If that were the case, then I would be terrified to be in your presence. After all, you do have a little wooden piece."

"My little wooden piece if completely modifiable, so I can make it as pleasurable to a woman as is needed. You are stuck with your mediocre member."

"You wouldn't know how mediocre it is if you hadn't looked at it when I was sleeping."

"No, Deidara. I know because if you extend your thumb upwards, the distance from the tip of your thumb to the base of your hand is double the length of your erection."

Deidara blinked, stopping in place, and extended his thumb to examine the length.

"Come along, Deidara. I don't like to be kept waiting."

The bomber's eye then twitched as he realized he had been bamboozled.

"Hey! That wasn't funny!"

"I have no idea what you are speaking of. You know a sense of humor is something I lack in my perfect work of art."

"Work of crap, more like. Art is fleeting, temporary, and comes in an explosion. You must constantly strive to make better and better art."

While Sasori was effectively made of wood, that didn't prevent his eyebrow from twitching. "As incorrect as you ever are, Deidara. Art is not an _explosion_. Art is eternal, graceful, and endures for all time."

"As much as I respect you as a fellow artist, and as much as we disagree on what Hidan dare thinks of art, the fact remains that it's _my_ art that we see today."

"And soon it will be mine that is displayed after we're done with the One-Tail, and we retrieve the Three-Tails."

"Since that's the case, Sasori-my-man, you just sit back and watch, hm."

Deidara made a hand seal and flew away on a large bird made of white clay.

Sasori watched his partner fly towards the Hidden Sand, thinking to himself how the blonde was probably going to die young.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Hidden Leaf _

_October 11, 1017 A.S._

True to Naruko's prediction, she spent of today being "interviewed" by the higher-ups of the Leaf.

Her father, of course, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Kakashi, the acting Jonin Commander since Shikaku was dead and Shikamaru wasn't ready for the job, Ibiki, along with Homura Mitokado and Koharu Utatane, the old councilors and teammates of the late Hiruzen Sarutobi, both of which somehow managed to make it out of Percy's rampage four years back with their lives. Naruko spent so long answering question after question, that the congregation took a lunch break before resuming.

The questions were simple ones, just numerous.

What does this person look like?

What jutsu do they use?

How does the Akatsuki operate?

Who is partnered with who?

What are Pain's powers?

You mean Yahiko and Konan are alive, but Yahiko has Nagato's eyes?

How are they? What have they been up to?

Focus Jiraiya. Now, you were saying something about the Rinnegan?

What have you learned from them after training with them for a year?

Ad infinitum.

Despite getting a lunch break, Naruko genuinely entertained soiling herself just for an excuse to get out of here. It wasn't that she was feeling guilty about lying—she wasn't really lying anyway, as all these questions had nothing to do with _him_—or feeling mentally taxed, it was just that she knew Deidara was due to be battling Gaara right about now, and the ritual was due in about three days from now, which was due to be completed in about 24 hours after that, with Percy steamrolling the process.

Naruko was eager to see her old friends and get them back on the track they were on when they were all kids, so that she could set out to get Gaara back to sanity before the One-Tail was ripped out of him.

However, something that was discouraging Naruko was Kakashi. The tardy man was once her sensei, and given the relationship he had with Minato, and all the times he served as a babysitter, and all his antics up until Percy, he was practically Naruko's big brother. Right now, he was all business. There was no mirth in his eye, no joy or happiness at seeing her alive and well, nothing to suggest he was still the easy-going, lazy, perverted badass that he always was.

He was honestly behaving the same way that Nagato's Six Paths did, and those things creeped Naruko out. Stoic, emotionless, but active and alert.

Moving corpses.

If that wasn't discouraging enough, last night, while Naruko certainly had an enjoyable birthday dinner with her mother, brother, and father, with ramen, ice cream, and a whole bunch of catching up that Naruko had to feign surprise over, having already been burdened with encyclopedic knowledge of the present-day Hidden Leaf thanks to Sasori, Zetsu, and Percy, Minato had sent ANBU out to all of the clan heads, Naruko's childhood friends, telling them that Naruko was back, it was her birthday, and they were all invited to the Namikaze residence to celebrate.

None of them showed up.

The ANBU that were dispatched all returned with the news that the clan heads sent their regards and best wishes, but were occupied already for the evening, and unavailable.

Even Sasuke, Naruko's _best _friend, didn't come, and Sakura was doing overtime at the hospital, with Jiraiya and Tsunade out doing something for the village, and Kakashi was out training with Guy, Lee and Tenten due to arrive back from a mission in the morning of the current day.

So, where Naruko's birthdays used to be huge, grand events with dozens of attendees, her seventeenth was spent with just her father, mother, and brother.

That sounded ungrateful, but compared to what she was used to, she felt like her most recent birthday like was taking a kick to the clit from Reality.

And since she had indeed been kicked in her clit, Naruko knew what she was talking about.

Eventually, Minato decided he was done grilling his daughter for the day and called the "meeting" to an end. The elders shuffled out, giving respectful nods and simple greetings, and Kakashi just looked at her before Teleporting away.

Minato placed a comforting hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Don't feel bad, it's not your fault. It's just that a lot has changed…a lot of people have changed since…" Minato struggled with the words, before abandoning them all together. "Hey, meet me at Training Ground 7 in ten, alright?"

"Got it."

With a bright, fatherly smile that fanned Naruko's hopeful flames for a world without the Infinite Tsukuyomi, Minato vanished in his titular yellow flash, leaving Naruko with Jiraiya and Tsunade. The Slug Sannin knew she was in the way of something important, so she gave Naruko a hug and left for the hospital.

The Jinchuuriki and the Toad Sannin stared at each other.

"I'm sorry," Naruko said.

"For leaving me?"

"Yes."

"Is that all you're sorry for?"

And the air got heavy as Naruko's cobalt blue looked into Jiraiya's solid obsidian, and she knew that he knew. At least in part.

"You've been talking with the Elder Toad," Naruko surmised.

Jiraiya took four steps forward, his sandals clacking against the ground, and he stood about four inches away from Naruko, towering over her with his impressive height compared to the average shinobi. He was looking down at her sadly, his lips pulled into a thin line, his eyes swimming with emotion. His finger came up, the tip pressing into Naruko's cleavage, and he lightly dragged it down her clothes, stopping at a point above her sex and below her belly button.

While being universally hailed as a super pervert, there was nothing even remotely perverted about what Jiraiya was doing. His heart was breaking, he was trying to keep himself together, and Naruko knew it. She could feel his emotions, his anger, his sadness, his sense of betrayal, all the conflict that roiled around inside of him at the circumstances.

There weren't any hidden ANBU or bugs in the room, elsewise this wouldn't even be happening.

"It's his, isn't it?"

"It is," Naruko answered without missing a beat, and not a hint of regret or hesitance in her voice.

"Please," Jiraiya said quietly. "Please tell me he raped you. Please tell me you didn't do it willingly."

Naruko found her own heart breaking with that question. Her godfather was desperately hoping that she had been raped—that she had been _raped_—as opposed to giving her consent to sleep with him. Jiraiya wanted her to tell him that she had been defiled, instead of loved.

It was a testament to how much damage Percy had caused.

"No," Naruko answered. "I told him I wanted to have sex, and we did, and we did many more times after."

Jiraiya let out a shuttering breath, his eyes watering at the sting he felt.

Naruko smiled sadly. "It gets worse as far as you're concerned, sensei."

She held up her palm and made a seal with her opposite hand. When the little cloud of smoke cleared, in her open hand was a large, gold, diamond-encrusted ring.

"We're engaged."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Despite being briefed for this mission, Deidara still found himself disappointed with the lack of activity below.

With the Kazekage having descended into paranoid madness, the village's economy suffered. Half the total population of the Hidden Sand was reported to have left the village in one way or another, some caravans immigrating to other nations, others, being lead by shinobi who decided they were done with Gaara's insanity, started up small settlements here and there throughout the country.

If Deidara recalled correctly, one settlement was doing so well for itself, that there was talk among the Imperial Wind Court of making it the new Hidden Village, leaving the Hidden Sand to crumble under Gaara's tyranny.

Deidara wasn't concerned about the politics though. He was just bummed out there weren't any more people down there than what there already was to enjoy his art show. Oh well.

In broad day light, Deidara dropped a series of bombs among the village, blowing up what was seemingly random structures, but no. Deidara blew up the shinobi and civilian hospital, the weapons depot, the shinobi academy, the civilian academy, and even the graveyard. Alarms rang out through the village, matched only by the sounds of screaming.

Hovering dead center in the light over the afternoon sun, Deidara continued his attack, throwing down guided bombs at strategically decided locations. The best part was that the only chakra he had currently used was that which was needed for the bird he was currently flying on. All of these current bombs had been premade days in advance.

When Deidara decided that there was enough chaos sewn, he descended in the blink of an eye, and promptly had to go shooting back up when the sand came at him. After some maneuvers, he leveled out, the sand ceasing its attack to rejoin its master, who was hovering on a platform of sand just a few meters away from where Deidara was.

"An agent of Shin'en!" Gaara rasped.

"And the gods wept," Deidara intoned, looking at the Kazekage.

He hadn't cut his hair in probably a year, likewise with his nails, and it was all dirty. He probably hadn't bathed in a substantial amount of time, as Deidara could smell him without putting any effort into it. Gaara was wearing the green and white robe of the Kazekage, but it was a filthy garment. The Jinchuuriki's eyes were dilated, the sclera bloodshot.

"I've been waiting for you," Gaara said, his voice raspy and gritty, like he had spent too much time screaming and yelling, and then proceeded to swallow handfuls of fingernails. "You've come for me, to take me to your master, but it won't happen!"

A large bead of sweat trailed down the side of Deidara's face. "I'd hardly call Shin'en my master…"

"I'LL KILL YOU BEFORE HE CAN GET ME!" Gaara's voice shot ten octaves higher, becoming an inhuman shriek.

The explanation for that probably had something to do with how his eyes shifted, the whites going pure black and the irises going gold with a black, four-pointed star for a pupil, a black dot in each of the quadrants made by the star.

"Oh, shit-"

Deidara was on the move as Gaara and the sand came after him.

'_Well, I certainly didn't expect this to be happening. From all the reports, I expected this guy to go running for the bunker at the first explosion, thinking it was Shin'en here to get him, and I'd have to blast my way down to where he was. Now I don't have to spend the chakra doing that, but I'm not sure this is an improvement,' _Deidara monologued to himself as he weaved through the sand.

He didn't have to worry about the village pitching in to attack him, as he had disabled their long range weapons with his bombs, and it wasn't like the populace was inclined to help their Kazekage, since half of it had fled, and the other half were either stuck or stupid, and those that were stupid were dealing with the fires and the rubble.

'_Oh, well. Thank you, Shin'en, for all that backup plan talk, hm.'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Percy called it his class ring. He had ordered it from this company called Jostens, going with all the most expensive options the company had just to "flex," as the slang of the setting went, on the student body, and because he had become invested enough in the high school spirit thanks to the efforts of Annabeth and Asteria.

Percy had told Naruko all about the Xenophobic dimension, and the Xenomorphic one, with Asteria, the transgender telepath, and Asteria, the Xenomorph Goddess, respectively. He had told her about how after Goddess-Asteria's ascension, he and she went back to Xenophobic and delivered the Annabeth and Asteria therein. Naruko wanted to go back to that world and see for herself how the two were doing.

The ring itself was an absolute masterpiece.

The style was Men's Sheer Ice 2XL, with the two face letters being SY for "Shin'en Yūrei," the enamel being black. The bezel top and accent stones were all pure diamond. The left side of the ring had the depiction of Goode's mascot, the eagle, along with his name written on top of the design. The right side of the ring had the stylized depiction of the graduation year, 2011. The metal quality was 18k gold and the metal finish was antique, or black, making the ring sides pop out. The ring interior was smooth with no engravings, and Shin'en had the ring come in the keepsake matte box with the black finish, and he bought the 10-year extended protection plan.

That all totaled to be $5,247.98.

Pocket change to the multi-millionaire demigod whose money was soaked in blood and anguish.

Having no other ring on him when he proposed, his class ring was what he had given to Naruko, and that was the ring she was presenting to Jiraiya. The Sannin shed tears.

"You're a traitor," he said, barely above a whisper. "You're a damn traitor, carrying the bastard child of our number one enemy."

Naruko's eyes flashed red as her lower lip quivered. She rammed her fist into Jiraiya's stomach, the solid wall of abdominal muscle he possessed providing no protection from the hurt Jinchuuriki's strength. He coughed blood, getting lifted off the ground, and he fell to his knees, looking up at Naruko with angry, betrayed, tear-leaking eyes.

"Not a word," she hissed down at him. "Not a word to anyone, or everything I'm trying to prevent will happen."

"And just what is it you're trying to prevent, traitor?" Jiraiya spat.

"The end of all life as we know it."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

From the sleeve of his cloak, Deidara produced his current masterpiece, the C3. Pre-prepared for this mission just like the other bombs, the C3 was a piece that, in its unactivated state, looked like a fat doll wearing a garment with a high ridge in the back, its arms crossed over its chest. With a shout, Deidara tossed the doll behind him at the chasing Jinchuuriki and made his seal. In a puff of smoke, the C3 took its true form: a humongous, fat thing with its arms spread wide, though they looked more like wings.

The scariest part of this piece wasn't its size, but its expression.

Two, perfectly circular eyes, and a vertical rectangle of a mouth. It was an expression of horror forever frozen onto a harbinger of untold death and destruction, and it was an expression mirrored by the insane Jinchuuriki as that big bomb went flying at his face.

"Art is an _explosion_!" Deidara screamed.

The C3 exploded in Gaara's face, and if it wasn't sunny enough in the desert at noon, then it certainly was now.

When all the obscurities cleared, the smoke, dust and the retinal burn, it was revealed that Gaara had cocooned himself in sand before the explosion happened, though the entire front half of said cocoon was hot glass. Deidara was nowhere to be seen.

Gaara disengaged his defense, eyes darting around for the blonde bomber.

"Hello…_Gaara_."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruko appeared at her old training ground, Jiraiya with her, all smiles. Minato was there, along with _everyone_.

Naruko's heart skittered in her chest as joy overcame her at seeing Sasuke, Sakura, Kakashi, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Hinata, Shino, Lee, Tenten, and Guy, though none of them were smiling at seeing her. None of their appearances were original, just their Shippuden outfits, except for Hinata, who was rocking her _Road to Ninja _style.

"Hey guys!" Naruko called, trotting over to her old friends.

"Oh, Naruko. You're back."

"Yeah, I am. How've you been, Sakura?"

"Well. Busy at the hospital."

'_Playing God, deciding who lives and who doesn't based on a logic-based flowchart.'_

"Oh, cool! What's that been like?"

"Busy."

Naruko moved to her spiritual brother—Indra to her Ashura. "Hey, Sasuke. How've you bee, bro?"

"Multiplying. Thanks to _him_, my clan was all but destroyed, but thanks to an old act signed by Lord Hashirama after the village was founded, the Clan Restoration Act, I've rectified what _he _did."

"O-Oh…that's…nice. How-how's the kid?"

"Kid_s_. Thirty-one have been born, and there are fourteen more pregnancies, three of which are twins, one is triplets, so fifty are due by next June."

"Well, I'm glad your clan is well on its way to coming back."

"Hardly. The women are all civilians from the red-light districts who all jumped at the chance of getting their hands on the Uchiha coffers. Their weak blood taints the purity of my family, but sacrifices had to be made for survival."

'_Kurama, I think he's undressing me in his mind.'_

'_**Considering your spiritual bond, I think this classifies as incest.'**_

'_Oh, gross.'_

Naruko moved to Kakashi. "Sensei," she said with a smile and a small bow.

"Not anymore I'm not."

"True, but you'll always be my sensei."

"I am your superior officer, Genin Namikaze."

"I…see. Have you been well?"

"Yes."

"That's good."

Naruko moved on to the current Ino-Shika-Cho team. "Hey, guys! I hear you're all clan heads now, that's awesome!"

"We're also not kids anymore, Naruko," Shikamaru said seriously. "We have business to attend to, and we were all interrupted by an immediate summons by Lord Hokage, obviously for you, though if this was just supposed to be a meet and greet, it could have been carried out at a different time."

"I tried, actually, yesterday, on my birthday, when I first got back. And then Dad sent out an invitation to every one of you to come to my birthday party, to which none of you showed up."

The trio shared a look, and then Ino piped up. "It's like you said and like Shikamaru said: we're clan heads and not kids anymore."

"That doesn't mean we aren't still friends."

Naruko moved to what remained of Team 8. "Hey, Shino. Hey Hinata."

"Naruko," the Aburame heir answered as stoically as he ever did, making it impossible to tell if he glad or otherwise to see her.

Hinata was, by far, the most enthusiastic in her greeting. She surged forward and glomped Naruko wrapping her arms tightly around the blonde—a bit too tightly, and bit too sensually placed—and gave her a big, too-friendly kiss on the cheek.

'_**Be very careful with this one. No one can love anyone more than one who is insane.'**_

'_I know.'_

Naruko hadn't paid any attention to it when they were kids, but after some reflection and council from the Akatsuki, she came to realize that Hinata had a crush on her, and with the latest intel, an unhealthy obsession.

Kushina had done a good job in their earliest years to break Hinata of her shyness, and it certainly showed to tremendous effect in the current day. Too well, even. Booty shorts, an open jacket to reveal a fishnet bra, a split bang, her hair pulled into a wild bunch, and makeup. She wasn't just _bold_, she was _arrogant_.

The most unfortunate part was that she had the skill to back it up, becoming so proficient in the Gentle Fist that her taijustu skills put her up there with the likes of Guy, Kakashi, etc., and she was only seventeen, projected by analysts to have at least another ten years to go.

"Naruko! Finally, you're back! It's been too long!"

"Yeah, it has…you can let me go now."

"Right, right." Hinata disengaged, leaving a big red lipstick mark on Naruko's cheek. "Where have you been all this time?"

"Here, there, everywhere," Naruko shrugged. "Training and making money. We'll talk more later."

'_Had tons of opportunity yesterday at my party that you didn't show up too.'_

'_**Like I said: she's insane.'**_

Naruko internally sighed in despondency. Lee and Tenten were definitely at the bottom of her friends list, though her childhood taijustu training with Guy made them more friends by association, but still her friends, and therefore worth her attention.

"Hey, you two. How've you been?"

"Training everyday until our bones broke and then keeping on until we couldn't move," Lee said, all traces of _youth_ gone from him.

Sakura snorted. "That's for damn sure."

Naruko tilted her head. "Why train that hard?"

"To kill _him_, and avenge everyone that died because of him," Tenten answered.

Naruko chuckled nervously. "Yeah, about killing him."

'_**Be careful, Naruko. This is the tricky part. Play your cards poorly, and it'll all be for nothing.'**_

Minato cleared his throat before a bombardment of questions could assault his daughter, since everyone had that expression on their face at Naruko's allusion.

"Everyone, I want to say thank you for obeying my summons on such short notice." Not that anyone really had a choice; when the Hokage called, you answered, regardless of shinobi status. "Obviously, my daughter has returned from her little unsanctioned vacation, and after some thorough questioning by Ibiki, we've determined that not only is she completely in the clear of any crimes, but that she's a hero."

Minato smiled, beaming with pride, while Jiraiya kept his face carefully neutral.

"Everyone…you're looking at the girl that played a crucial part in the operation that put a final end to Hidden Leaf Enemy Number One. Ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at the girl that helped finally kill Shin'en Yūrei."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gaara slowly turned around, paralyzed. He knew that voice, heard it in his nightmares that served to ruin so many sets of bedding that Temari suggested investing in nighttime protection, to which Gaara executed her, thinking that it was a ploy by _him_, that the "protection" was going to be poisoned in some way, and Temari had fallen under his black magic.

Gaara hadn't wanted to kill his beloved big sister, but if she had been corrupted by _him_, willingly or otherwise, then she couldn't be allowed to live.

But now _he _was _here_.

Gaara's robes began to warm, starting between his legs and steadily trickling down to his feet. Slowly he turned, as if taking his time would provide enough opportunity for the gods to descend and deliver him from this devil. If the gods were watching, they provided no help.

"I'm here for you, Gaara."

And there Shin'en was, standing atop a vicious bird of white, his scarlet eyes burning into Gaara's.

The Kazekage let out an inhuman, primal, horrified screech. He felt something small, like a bird, attach to his back, and then his body was rocked by heat and thunder. He felt air rush past him, and then he was abruptly stopped. He opened his eyes to see he was in the clutches of Yomi himself, and his body just stopped.

And then the devil turned white and lost shape, like he was melting.

Gaara passed out, whether from fear or from the explosions of the two bombs, the explosive Shin'en clone and the explosive bird, Deidara didn't know. He just knew that he flew into an enemy village, bombed it, did single combat with the Jinchuuriki Kazekage and won, all in less than five minutes.

Barely even used any chakra.

With the Kazekage, unconscious and skin marred with cracks, indicating that his Sand Armor had broken, held safely in the tailfeathers of his explosive bird, Deidara flew back for the entrance of the village, where Sasori was walking back to after attending to his own little personal mission.

The puppeteer looked up when the bomber flew overhead, and jumped up, landing on the bird.

"Did I keep you waiting too long, Sasori-my-man?"

"No."

"Did you enjoy my art show?"

"_That _was what you call art?"

And thus began another session of debate and bickering, as if they hadn't just laid waste to one of the biggest super powers on the map.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruko had been expecting a small list of reactions from her friends when they learned she had killed Shin'en without them. She expected to be yelled at and cursed, outright attacked, joyous cheering, crying, and even absolute silence.

Her expectations were met in that she was on the receiving end of a verbal onslaught.

As was stated, she was expecting it, which was why it didn't emotionally, physically, spiritually, or mentally hurt. She understood their anger, of course. They had all practically dedicated their lives to acquiring power and massing strength for the day that Percy emerged from hiding, and they were given the mission to go after his head. All that time and effort, all that righteous fury, seeking vengeance in the name of their families…and they had just been told that their opportunity was robbed from them.

By one of their own.

Who was standing right before them.

They all shut up though when Naruko's eyes turned a glowing red and she released a blast of Kurama's volatile red chakra, cracking the ground at her feet, releasing a sound like a thunder clap, producing a wave of force powerful enough to knock everyone back, and generating a quick, yet potent, dosage of killing intent, though none of it hers.

The Nine-Tails might have been Naruko's friend, but he was the enemy of all others in the world, and after being imprisoned by her shinobi for the past century, Kurama's fury burned brightest for the Leaf.

Naruko let them have a taste to spare her sensitive ears.

"Now that we have some silence, I can explain."

And she did, how she left Jiraiya after feeling she learned all she could from the man—which was a truthful, genuine sentiment—and how she wondered from country to country for a few months, living in the wilderness, making money here and there by adhering to the Bingo Book, until she eventually found her way at the very edge of the map, where the organization Akatsuki was busy training.

Naruko explained the Akatsuki, their members, and their overall goal of simply getting rich and then ditching the world, and in order to do that, after training with them for nearly a year, they went after He Who Must Not Be Named first, who had the biggest bounty in the whole world. Obviously, she couldn't have just told them to wait for second while she hauled ass all the way back to the Leaf to round everyone up and then haul ass back to the Akatsuki and then resume the search.

"I'm sorry that I robbed you all of your shot at vengeance. I'm sorry that you put all that time, training, and effort into something that you can't do anymore," Naruko said earnestly. "That's why I thought of a compromise."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke sneered, his Eternal Mangekyou out and blazing.

Naruko tilted her head to the side, cracking her neck. "I helped kill him. You all got stronger to kill him. I got stronger too. I wronged all of you. His blood's on my hands, so there's at least a little part of him left for you guys to stab at." Naruko spread her arms, adopting a dangerous expression.

"You're all pissed off and angry, and I think I suffice as an outlet."

"Naruko…" Minato said warningly.

"It's alright, we've got a medic right here. Just think of this as some really intense training."

Intense was an understatement. The air was thrumming, thick and heavy, with the chakra of shinobi that were classified of at least A-rank. With her empathy, Naruko could feel tension rising in the village as civilian and shinobi alike could feel the disturbance in the air. What kept a swarm of ANBU and other personnel from storming the training ground was that reports had already circulated that Lord Hokage was there with his daughter and the clan heads, and there had yet to be any emergency signal sent, so the general understanding was that some shit was going down, and it was in their best interest to stay away.

"Well, _my friends_?" Naruko taunted.

Her pupils turned from a dot to a horizontal bar that was intersected by a vertical slit, her cobalt blue irises turning a bloody orange. A pigment of the same color appeared around her changed eyes. The sash around her waist came undone, her kimono falling to ground to reveal a black sports bra.

"You all trained to be powerful enough to fight _Shin'en_, but he's not here anymore and I'm the next best thing. You gonna let all that time and energy go to waste, or are we gonna fight?"

Minato and Jiraiya stood back as everyone else charged at Naruko, fully intent on killing her they were so enraged with what she had done to them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**[If there had to be a song for this, I'd go with "Learning to Fly" by Stratovarius, which is the same song used in the AMV of Pain demolishing the Leaf…or whatever.]**

In the face of eleven very unhappy shinobi all charging at her, Naruko held _almost _nothing back. She was already in Sage Mode, combining it with enough of Kurama's chakra to make her eyes change, her whisker birthmarks become horrid, scar-like streaks. Her lips turned black, black rings appeared around her eyes, and her toe and fingernails lengthened into claws. However, as dangerous a combination as this was, it was literally not enough.

To Naruko's only slight astonishment, everyone before her had their Fifth Gate open, so she was looking at an onslaught of red-skinned and glowing angry people. To counter, she opened up her Seventh Gate, going through all the previous six in an instant.

Now two gates higher with a chakra stronger than anyone's, even Sasuke's, mixed in with natural chakra and Tailed-Beast chakra, Naruko was ready to rumble. She was supposed to be a surrogate for Percy in this fight, serving as a substitute, an outlet, for all of their hatred.

Naruko shot forward and struck first Guy and then Lee, sending them skidding through the ground. The other recovered and attacked. Naruko gained distance and moved back into the fray in the blink of an eye, targeting Ino. Kakashi crashed down at Naruko, but he was intercepted by a Shadow Clone that had been made minutes prior. Ino Wasn't fast or strong enough to handle Naruko, and she was the first one out.

The Jinchuuriki exchanged a rapid series of blows with Shikamaru and Choji before disengaging and then having to deal with Tenten. Naruko weaved through the weapon specialist's attacks, before clocking her across the lower jaw and grabbing the back of her shirt before she could go spiraling away, and hurled her into the trees, unleashing destruction as the trunks splintered hundreds of feet deep into the forest.

There was no moment of rest of reprieve, not even for a millionth of a second, as now Hinata attacked. Naruko weaved through her attacks, and then had to deal Choji again. She sped away and was met with Shino, the bug-user exercising an abnormal amount of taijustu, though if Naruko had to guess, he figured that his bugs wouldn't do much good against a Jinchuuriki hyped up on the Gates.

Naruko exchanged blows with the Aburame, and then disengaged from him when the shadows started to attack. Naruko rushed in a wide arc at Shikamaru, appearing next to him in less time that an eye blink. The others came at her, but Naruko made a small sacrifice. To take out the Nara with a blow to his head, she left herself open for assault. However, she was incredibly fast.

Shino, Hinata, Choji, and Sakura all came bearing down on her, and she took to the defensive, blocking and weaving through the four-strong onslaught of punches and kicks. Still, even as pressing as this was, Naruko still had enough awareness to think to herself that they must've made a dazzling sight.

Her Shadow Clone then dispelled, and instead of there being a lax moment as the sudden shock of the memories came, and another moment as her brain processed those memories, but no. After so much training with the Akatsuki—training that specifically involved dispelling Shadow Clones in the midst of battle in order to cope with the sudden influx of information—it had become muscle memory for Naruko to instead immediately kick it up a notch.

Here was no different.

Drawing on more of Kurama's chakra, enough to make her hair go from her well-kept lengths to a jagged mane, and her incisors extend into fangs, Naruko nailed Shino right in his mouth, insuring a trip to the dentist, grabbed Hinata's jabbing arm and slung her into Sakura hard enough for them both to lose their wind, and using the momentum from her spin, continued going in that arc to firmly plant her shin upside Choji's face.

Those four were cleared out just in time for Kakashi, Guy, and Lee to come zooming back into the fray. They met at Naruko and there was an explosion. The cloud was blasted away by the four of them rising into the air. Naruko fended off the three-pronged taijustu assault, the force of their blows creating sounds like thunder, making harsh winds, and their speed made their limbs little more than comprehensible blurs.

Naruko gabbed Lee's and Guy's fists and caught Kakashi's kick between her feet in an amazing show of agility. Blasting chakra utilizing the same principle as the Rasengan, Naruko spun like a top, turning the four of them into the world's most dazzling airborne phenomena, before releasing them. The three Leaf shinobi were sent hurtling to the ground, impacting with so much force that the earth shook, and craters were made.

Naruko barely dropped a foot before Might Guy was back in her face.

"Asakujaku!"

Guy's fists caught fire as he punched at Naruko with a taijustu technique designed by himself specifically to _kill_. Balls of fire erupted around them, shooting out in all directions, to the heavens and the ground, setting the forest ablaze. The scariest part was that none of Guy's punches were connecting with anything, and Naruko wasn't blocking.

With her palms, she was slapping every punch away from her, displaying tremendous precision and reflex. If that was _all _she was doing, then Guy would've fared better, but during all of her parrying, Naruko was also arching her fingers enough to where her claws were going through Guy's skin. Now, being stabbed was hardly debilitating to a seasoned shinobi, but being stabbed by something laced with the corrosive and very unfriendly chakra of the Nine-Tails was certainly a detriment.

Guy's jutsu got to the end of its cadence, and his final punch was caught by the wrist. Kakashi appeared behind Naruko, his fist bright and chirping. The Jinchuuriki maneuvered so that Guy took the Chidori right to his stomach, and Naruko kicked them both away. Lee appeared in a burst of speed, but Naruko punched him and grabbed him, through him beneath her. She planted his foot dead center in his back and went rocketing back to the ground hard and fast enough that a cone of fire formed around them.

They impacted with a loud bang, blowing apart solid rock.

And then Sakura and Hinata were back, this time the former covered in tattoos and the latter had glowing scarlet lions around her hands. Naruko once again went defensive, though she was still drawing on the same amount of Tailed-Beast chakra she had been using against Guy, Lee, and Kakashi. With that level of power, it was easy to dodge the girls' attacks.

Naruko swept Hinata off her feet and tapped her stomach. That simple touch transferred enough momentum to the Hyuuga that she went ten feet below ground level in a single millisecond, kicking up dust and debris. Sakura dispelled it by charging through, punching at Naruko like a boxer.

At Sakura's level, having opened the Sixth Gate, utilizing the rhombus-shaped Reserve Seal on her forehead to boost her chakra with what she had been saving up for years, and having expert knowledge of Tsunade's chakra-enhanced strength techniques, the pink-haired kunoichi was an absolute taijustu terror, possessing not the same finesse as the like of Guy and Lee, but outmatching them both—_combined_—in raw strength.

Naruko intercepted Sakura's next two punches with the palms of her hands and stopped them both dead.

A deafening boom rang out over the training ground, and the earth at their feet buckled and splintered.

The red skin, glowing aura, and tattoos all instantly vanished from Sakura, and her green eyes widened in absolute terror. To foil, Naruko remained powered up, still with seven Gates open, still drawing on enough of Kurama's chakra to maintain her bestial appearance, and still in Sage Mode.

Since they were in a crater created by the concussive force of stopping Sakura's ultra-powerful punches, the kick the pinkette received to her stomach sent her plowing through the ground, tearing a massive gouge through the landscape until she hit a tree. Friction had done enough to where the resistance of the tree was enough to halt Sakura, but the tree's base did explode and the rest of it came toppling down on top of the kunoichi.

Then a hail of tree-sized purple arrows rained from the blackened sky, all of them laced with black fire.

The red of Sasuke's Eternal Mangekyou glowed brightly amidst the black majority of his eye, and the black flames swirled and howled up into a tapered twister that generated so much heat that the fires raging through the forest were snuffed out. Sasuke's hand sparked with lightning as he raised it above his head, and he discharged a bolt to the heavens. A dragon of lightning emerged with a scream.

Sasuke had seen Shin'en do this years back, recording the whole thing with his Sharingan, and he had since been practicing, eagerly awaiting the day to throw this magnificent jutsu right back in Shin'en's face.

Now he "couldn't" do that thanks to his "sister," so she'd have to suffice. Besides, she offered herself up anyway, so it wasn't like Sasuke was in any kind of wrong.

So, with that kind of thinking, Sasuke brought his hand down, and Kirin went roaring right into the middle of the black inferno.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Did Minato think this was a tad extreme? Not really.

He had personally seen to the training of everyone here, had helped them unlock their Inner Gates to give them the much-needed physical boost against Shin'en, and he'd helped them develop their own new slew of jutsu. Working with them all one on one, he knew just how deep their hatred and loathing for Shin'en went, and just how thirsty all of them were for the demigod's blood.

Hell, Minato himself was in that same boat, but the fact that he had other duties to attend to served as a terrific detriment to becoming consumed by vengeance, though he still had a strong desire for it.

And then his daughter returned and told him how she had been the one to help kill Shin'en, with the final blow being delivered by someone not even of the Land of Fire. That was like a kick in the nuts from the gods themselves.

_Yeah, all that time and effort you put into training, all that lost sleep and all those sleepless nights spent thinking of how you were going to kill Shin'en and avenge your families? You know how much you were all looking forward to finally getting the mission to go and kill him? Well, don't worry about it anymore, because it's been taken care of! Har-har-har!_

It was like not getting any sleep for a week, staying up all those hours to study, study, study for a great big test, only to be told that the test was cancelled, and everyone got a free 100.

It was robbery.

Shit like this was why Minato wasn't religious.

He did feel absolutely over the moon that Naruko had been there to help kill the demigod bastard, but he still felt cheated that he didn't get a pound of flesh for himself for all the village-family he lost that day on the Chunin Exam. Minato could only imagine how distraught these teenagers were, with their higher emotional instability and lack of the same focus that he had as the Hokage.

Well, no, he didn't have to imagine. He had just watched them all try to beat his daughter to death. He was going to have a chat with Guy and Kakashi about keeping their composure later, but for now he needed to wrap this up. The kids needed medical attention, and he needed to make sure Sasuke didn't just turn Naruko into a roast.

Nine-Tails chakra, Sage Mode, and Inner Gates or no, an Amaterasu, Susano'o, and Kirin combo was a devastating thing, especially because those arrows created some kind of chakra-disrupting pattern that nullified things like the Substitution Jutsu, and made space-time jutsu difficult to perform, and all that heat and all those obstacles made high-speed techniques almost impossible without getting third-degree burns.

Minato was about to send out a chakra pulse to call for his ANBU to come take everyone to the hospital for their injuries, but Sasuke held up a hand.

"It's not over yet."

Sakura, Kakashi, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Lee, Tenten, and Guy had all returned to consciousness and managed to drag themselves back to the group, though they were suffering from various levels of chakra exhaustion. The Eight Gates was indeed a taxing technique, even if you were well-versed in its usage. Hearing Sasuke say it wasn't over was probably the most demoralizing thing they heard that day, even in the face of getting their asses kicked by Naruko despite them going all out against her.

"Did you all forget…" Naruko's voice was heard from the smoking crater created by Sasuke's technique.

Golden rays of light began to shine from the dissipating smoke cloud. Naruko was soon revealed, burns and blisters on her skin, indicating that Sasuke had actually done some damage—the most damage thus far, and he hadn't even gotten his hands dirty yet—but the golden energy that was steadily starting to shroud and surround her was quickly healing her wounds, and even taking shape.

"…when Shin'en was six years old, he single-handedly killed a 20-strong ANBU black-ops squad that was led by Ameyuri Ringo, one of the Hidden Mist's Seven Swordsmen…"

The golden chakra formed around Naruko, turning her orange pants gold and her sandals black. A long-sleeved coat formed around her, also gold, trailing down to her knees. The coat came with a high collar, and on the back of this coat were nine black magatama arranged in a square, and a series of black rings that made something of a mock Rinnegan. Her torso turned up to her neck black and her Seal turned bright gold, along with her bra. Her whisker marks became solid bars, and her eyes glowed gold, her pupils still in the same cross pattern. Her hair floated around behind her in nine distinct tails, also shrouded in the golden chakra, as was every bit of exposed skin.

"…when he was twelve years old, he fought and killed Yagura, the Third Mizukage _and_ Jinchuuriki of the Three-Tails, in single combat…"

Around Naruko, the golden chakra expanded into a massive blob decorated with black patterns, her centered in it, and that blob began to take shape. One, two, three, and eventually thirteen long, draconian necks and heads, Naruko suspended in the center head. She had created a near perfect rendition of the Thirteen-Headed Water Dragon Jutsu Shin'en had terrorized the Leaf with, and that fact was not lost on any that saw her.

"…and then at thirteen, he fought against the sum total of the Hidden Leaf's shinobi corps, bolstered with forces from the Sand and Cloud, all of that accompanied by the Jinchuuriki of the One, Two, Eight, and Nine-Tails, and after that, he still had enough strength to fight me and Sasuke, both of us reinforced by the spirit of the Sage of Six Paths himself, and even after that, Shin'en still had enough power to fight and kill the Third Raikage…"

Naruko smirked from atop her chakra construct, her eyes sad as she put no restraints on her chakra, letting its volume and density and feel settle on the land, so that all might feel her power and understand the difference between them.

"You should've seen him at seventeen. Even up against ten S-class rogues, with me helping, after a year of intensive training, we still barely won. We had to use cheap tricks, low blows, and underhanded tactics. We still barely survived, and he was even _sick_. Whatever happened in the four years between the Chunin Exam and when we fought him, it left him debilitated, not at full strength."

Her words were working on them, as they were beginning to put things into perspective.

"Not even at his full potential or power, Shin'en was able to fend off ten S-rank shinobi, one of them with the Rinnegan, and me, the Jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tails and the daughter of the Hokage. Even weakened, we still had to cheat to win."

Naruko closed her eyes and started bringing her chakra back in, robbing the world of her dazzling light. When she was back on the ground, powered down, left in her sports bra and tattered pants, her right sandal having busted its thong and was only being held to her foot via chakra being used in the same way as the tree-walking exercise.

She looked at her friends and gathered sensei with a sad, knowing smile.

"You guys together could barely bruise me. It took Sasuke nearly half of his reserves to do that much damage to me, and I healed from it all. I even had a whole other level of power ready to go. Guys, I was kicking your asses with you giving it your all, and Shin'en nearly _killed_ me, giving it my all, when he wasn't even at full power."

She didn't voice it, but her rhetorical question still reverberated through the air: _What chance do you think you guys had?_

It was demoralizing, so completely draining, so world-shattering, to know that for all your hard work and effort, that there was someone out there whose natural ability so far outstripped yours, that could you drive yourself all the to center of the Earth and back out, and still not even come close to that person.

The revelation that Shin'en was that powerful—in a weakened state yet still powerful enough to fight ten S-rankers _and_ Naruko, who was obviously S-rank herself—while they were all dying against just Naruko, ripped the wind so hard out of their sails that they couldn't muster the energy needed to get angry at themselves, at Naruko, at the universe, or at anything.

Instead, they were all left depressed.

Sasuke was, by far, faring better than anyone else. As soon as Naruko powered up, he dropped back and watched with his Eternal Mangekyou, recording everything that was happening. He waited for his moment, and more or less half-assed it. He certainly could've put more _umph_ into his jutsu, made the fire hotter, the Kirin bigger, but he didn't. He was just looking to end the fight before someone got too terribly hurt.

What was staying Sasuke's full hand was the fact that his Sharingan saw something.

It was understood by anyone that knew of the Sharingan that it had progressive levels of power. The one tomoe, then the two, and the three tomoe-bearing Sharingan being the most powerful with the full range of abilities, that being the Eye of Insight and Eye of Hypnotism in their strongest states, being able to predict movement, see chakra, copy actions, induce genjutsu and see through the illusions of others.

The same principles held true for the Mangekyou Sharingan, and for the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan. The base powers of the eye were increased with each stage, and of course, there were added powers. The Mangekyou unlocked user-specific techniques, and the Eternal Mangekyou refined them and empowered them.

Then there was the vision itself.

With Sasuke's eyes, the most powerful eyes since Madara himself, he could see something there in Naruko that no one else could, not even the Byakugan: a little, tiny, _microscopic_ ball of chakra in her uterus.

Sasuke wanted answers.

"Come on, guys," Naruko said with a smile. "It's the day after, but we can still go celebrate my birthday."

"Hospital first," Choji groaned. "Then cake."

Thought it hurt, there were a few rounds of chuckles from the gathered ninja.

'_**Perhaps there's hope yet.'**_

'_There's always hope, Kurama.'_

'_**So it seems…'**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**You are in luck, my brethren. Since it's still two days before New Year's, you'll get one more chapter, though you might be disappointed. I suggest going back to read the bits in **_**Blood War **_**that had to do with Persephone, as next chapter will be about her and the Giant War, as that storyline is happening more or less parallel to this one.**_

_**To recap this chapter: Sasori doesn't use his Hirako puppet anymore, Temari is dead, Deidara captured Gaara, Naruko is an accomplished liar, though she's told Jiraiya the truth, and so far he appears conflicted about it. She's grown to be exceptionally powerful due to her training with the Akatsuki, able to maintain Sage Mode, seven of the Eight Gates, and draw on Kurama's chakra, and still have the stamina left over to initiate Tailed-Beast Sage Mode.**_

_**Now, if you're asking why did Naruko's Tailed-Beast form not make the titular golden fox with nine tails as seen in all **_**Naruto **_**media, that's because that form is an extension of her's and Kurama's chakra working in unison, right? So, since chakra is a moldable and malleable energy, it can be shaped into anything, yes? So why not make a point by shaping the chakra construct into the jutsu that Shin'en used to take on a whole army accompanied by the Tailed-Beasts?**_

_**And if none of that is actually correct, then whatever. It still makes for cool storytelling.**_

_**The name of this chapter is a derivative of the phrase "no pain, no gain," in that all of the characters herein suffered some pain, emotionally when they discovered their dead families, and physically from all the training they did, but from that pain, they still didn't gain enough power. **_

_**And 9k+. You're welcome.**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	4. Persephone isn't like Canon

_Persephone isn't like Canon_

_**This is it, the last chapter for a good long while before I go on to complete my novel.**_

_**That's the plan, anyway.**_

_**This chapter revolves entirely around Persephone and the PJO world, because I put too much time and effort into building up her backstory just to gloss over it.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own PJO or Naruto

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With the Titan War ending on her sixteenth birthday, Persephone effectively saved the world before the start of her sophomore year of high school. It seemed that in thanks for her efforts, the gods didn't care one way or the other how the year went.

Annabeth might have been at Persephone's side the whole year, but the teachers, sans Paul, were all a bunch of buttholes who didn't understand how ADHD and dyslexia worked. On the social level, she was pretty much back to being a loser.

Last year, with that whole debacle with the clique spreading lies and rumors about Persephone's sexual misconduct, and even planning some kind of lethal prank that word got out about and the FBI themselves showed up with arrest warrants, all the jocks that were allegedly responsible for knocking Persephone up were all brought into the principle's office and told their scholarships were in jeopardy for their behavior, but they were all saved by Persephone's benevolence.

Since that day, the jocks had become something of a guard detail for Persephone.

But they were all the senior varsity team, graduated, and the underclassmen didn't share the sentiment.

While no one had forgotten that whole episode, the ones who cared were all gone, leaving in the school four whole classes that didn't care one way or the other about Persephone, leaving her only friends to be Annabeth and Paul. Also last year, there had been a minor thing with Persephone wearing her Akatsuki cloak, but she managed to dodge her way through the principle's control fantasy. This year, the principle had gone all the way up to the school board and gotten special permission to ban cosplay items.

As Persephone's cloak was recognized as a cosplay item, she couldn't wear it anymore, which prompted her to kick Annabeth's butt into gear regarding Mist lessons.

Long story short Persephone could still wear her Akatsuki cloak.

Other than these grievances, there wasn't much else to her sophomore year. She had Annabeth, she had Paul, she had a loving mother to go home to every afternoon, she had homework, projects, tests, C's for grades—but hey, that's passing, and as far as Sally was concerned, all things surrounding her daughter considered, C's were just fine—teachers that were rude, peers that were ruder, and crappy cafeteria food. However, there weren't any monster attacks for the Mist to conveniently warp into some kind of vandalism on Persephone's part, nor were there any gods to pop in and be like _Do this thing for me_.

Which honestly bummed Persephone out.

During the Christmas break of the year, she, Annabeth, Sally, and Paul were gathered in the living room of the apartment, and Persephone was venting about the New York educations system and how dumb teachers were and how she wished she could be done with school forever, which prompted Sally to ask a very important question.

"Sweetie…what _are _you planning to do with your life after school?"

Silence hung thick and heavy in the apartment after that question. In all her life, Sally couldn't ever recall her daughter exclaiming that she was going to be _this _or _that_ when she grew up. Sally couldn't accurately remember if Persephone had ever said she was going to be a princess or a Power Ranger like most kids did—though Persephone ironically fit the criteria for both, being the sea god's daughter made her a princess, and she had fought monsters and bad guys to save the world.

Persephone sat there, aware of three sets of eyes on her, silent as she looked at the ground.

"Seph," Annabeth said. "You have thought about the rest of your life, right? I know sophomore year of high school could be argued as being too early to start planning your career, but its certainly time to start thinking about it."

"Right, right…I get it…"

"Well? Have you?"

"…I've…I've though about…" the way her face was moving, it was clear to all that what she was about to say was a total lie. "I've thought about being a marine biologist…"

Annabeth's eyes narrowed, while Paul and Sally looked at each other.

"Well, sweetie, you certainly have the right father to help you get the job," Sally said.

"Yep," Persephone chirped. "I've got this cool little power I recently discovered. Go ahead, give me a marine species."

Annabeth cocked a brow and went with a simple one. "Great White Shark."

"_Carcharodon Carcharias_. Average bite power exceeds 15,000 Newtons. Swims up to 60km an hour. Ovoviviparous. Cannibalistic. May eat their own young, though they feed mostly fish, cetaceans, and pinnipeds. Migration patterns include the entire ocean. Natural threats include _Orcinus Orca_ and humans."

They all stared at Persephone, before Annabeth went on a long string of throwing out the names of fish and other water-based life, to which Persephone gave a slew of information right off the top of her head.

"So, you have natural encyclopedic knowledge of all marine-based life," Annabeth surmised. "That's certainly going to be really helpful as a marine biologist."

"Yep."

"You'll also need about 60 credit hours, including basics in Math, English, Science, and Social Studies, before you get to the actual biology work."

"Nah. I'll just use the Mist to skip all that stuff and get right to work. I'll get my own show and everything. I'll even start up this super-big conservation movement to stop pollution and over-fishing, but I'll also have the actual power to get things down, like capsize poacher boats and sabotage the factories and stuff on the coasts and on the rivers and lakes."

"You'd be like a real-life Aquaman," Annabeth said.

Persephone pumped a fist in the air. "Aqua_girl_ for the planet!"

Paul raised his coffee mug. "I'll drink to that."

And then Persephone so carefully avoided all further talk about her after-high school plans that Paul and Sally dropped the subject, but Annabeth kept in her back pocket, ready to bring it up again when the time was right.

To the blonde, it was obvious Persephone had no intention about becoming a marine biologist, and that part about using the Mist to skip her way through the school necessary for the degree was out of her character—the usage described was mind-control and will-manipulation, things that weren't up the kind-hearted Persephone's alley—though the bit about being "Aquagirl" wasn't a total lie. The conservation thing was a bit out there, but the sabotage and capsizing was well within Persephone's power, and her eyes said that she knew it too.

Bottom line was that Persephone was already dead-set on a course, but she didn't know how well her course would go over with Sally and Paul, or at least Sally, and since one of her life missions was to never disappoint her mother, she was hesitant to tell Sally her plan.

Anyway, sophomore year passed without any notable happenings, no gods, no monsters, no altercations with students and/or staff, Persephone's highest grade was a B-, she passed all her finals, and went on a date here and there with Annabeth. A reliving thing for Persephone was that Annabeth had seemingly got her libido in check and wasn't trying to feel her up every other hour in the attempt to get her aroused enough to drop her pants.

She couldn't explain it herself, but Persephone just…she just didn't feel like she was ready for that step in their relationship.

And speaking of relationship, Persephone once asked Annabeth this question:

"Like, we're both girls, and we're dating, but would we if we were both boys? From what I've seen, the world's a bit more okay with girls dating than boys dating."

Annabeth nodded, and based on the look on her face, she already had these thoughts and already had an answer prepared. "We're soulmates, Seaweed Brain. When I was still a boy, I was crushing on you—as soon as I first saw you, hauling Grover up the hill on your back, the Minotaur horn in your hand, I was like _She's hot_, and-"

"What do you think of me now?"

"You're mega hot—but I was a scared boy and didn't know how to tell you how I felt, and Circe's potion changed that."

"Made you super horny, too."

"I do agree that an increased libido is a side effect of Circe's potion. So, when we could've been considered straight, I was in love with you, and we're both girls now and I'm still in love, so I think that yes, if we were both boys, we'd still be dating."

"How do you think Percy would handle that?"

"Oh, he'd probably have killed me already."

"Nope. I wouldn't let him."

"To be fair, there's a long list of things he'd do without your permission."

"True, but killing my boyfriend isn't one of them."

"How would you stop him, though?"

"I'd kick his butt."

"…how?"

"With my awesome big sister powers!"

"You're awesome big sister powers."

"Yep."

Annabeth stared at her girlfriend, who maintained this stare with a smug look. Eventually, the daughter of wisdom couldn't hold out against the stubbornness of the sea's daughter.

"Whatever, Seaweed Brain. Anyway, we're soulmates. We'd be together if we were both boys, if you were a girl and I was a boy, or if you were a boy and I was a girl. Heck, we'd be together no matter what we were."

"What if we were rocks?"

"We'd still be together," Annabeth said sagely.

"Yeah, but how?"

"We just would."

"Okay."

So, yeah. Sophomore year was rather drab, serving only to build Persephone's relationship with her girlfriend, and further sour her experience with the education system. The year ended, and summer began, with the girls going off to Camp Half-Blood with a summer filled fun, pranks, and teaching kids how to kill monsters and people.

At two months and change shy of seventeen, Persephone was well into her powers, with just a few years to go until her prime, so she wasn't even at her strongest yet. That didn't stop her from giving Luke a run for his drachma.

The redeemed son of Hermes was panting and sweating, as was Persephone, as they crossed blades in moves so fast that their swords were just barely visible streaks of light, catching the noonday sun on their flats. Sparks showered the ground around their feet, and the sounds created from their clashing had caught the attention of the whole camp, even pulling the attendees of arts and crafts in the forges away from the fires and tongs.

It was such a struggle for the two of them.

Luke, the most powerful child of Hermes, the oldest camper here at 24 years, was in his peak, and it showed. Standing at 6'2, weighing in at almost 200 pounds of solid mass, bringing with him years of experience and natural combat ability as a demigod, and enhanced speed as the son of the messenger god. Whereas Persephone was projected to be done growing at 5'10, weighing in at 147 pounds of lean mass, bringing with her better physical abilities than Luke, though she was limited by her female stature and the fact that she wasn't at her peak like Luke was.

Still, all these factors considered, Luke and Persephone were at a deadlock, at least in terms in of combat.

Experience was Luke's friend, and he was able to disarm Persephone.

"Yield…" the son of Hermes panted, sword tip at the girl's throat.

She put her arms up. "Alright…" she breathed heavily, then smirked. "Sike!"

Luke yelped when water gathered around his ankles and then yanked him into the air, holding him upside down. Riptide reappeared in Persephone's pocket, and she leveled the bronze blade at Luke's throat.

"Yield," she grinned.

The son of Hermes shrugged. "Had to resort to your powers _and_ still needed to get the drop on me, so I'm still better than you with the sword."

"Yeah, I'll give you that, but I can beat everyone here any time I want to."

"I'll give you that one."

Persephone let the water go and Luke twisted, landing on his feet with no problem. The gathered group of seven-year-olds screamed and cheered and clapped, the older demigods in the stands joining in at the show provided by the two best swordsmen in the camp.

Annabeth was there, about the only time she wasn't within view of Persephone was when she was in her cabin or in the bathroom, and even then, Persephone was probably either outside the stall or in the next door. They were practically joined at the hip. And because of that, Annabeth had spent a lot of time watching her girlfriend, lots of time analyzing, lots of time picking up on patterns, mannerisms, and ticks.

With all of that collected data, it was obvious that _this_ was Persephone's element, this was where she was happiest and at her peak.

Her plans for after high school didn't go any further than Camp Half-Blood. Like Luke, she intended to be a full-time instructor.

Annabeth couldn't decide if that was a good thing, or a bad thing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The only hitch to the summer was when it was about to end, just a week before junior year, actually, when Persephone up and vanished, coincidentally coinciding with Zeus shutting off Olympus, which coincidentally coincided with Hera mysteriously going missing. If Annabeth hadn't been informed prior to these happenings by Hera herself, she would've been all over Lou Ellen's ass to cooperate with the sum total of the Hephaestus cabin to make some kind of interdimensional telephone so she could call Shin'en and tell him his sister was missing.

Annabeth had no doubt that he'd be here and have everything solved by sundown.

As it stood, she was on her own for so many months, having to assist one Leo Valdez in creating the _Argo II_, while also building friendships with the Mexican elf, Jason Grace, and Piper McLean.

Wasn't too bad, but she was missing her snuggle time, and Persephone being absent deprived the blonde of being able to sniff her Seaweed Brain's dirty panties.

…

What? They were soaked in those good, good muffin pheromones. It was like going down on Persephone without actually doing so.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The daughter of Poseidon, for her part, was kinda annoyed with proceedings.

First, she wakes up in some ruins and is met by an abnormally large wolf calling herself Lupa, the goddess of Rome and mother to Romulus and Remus, who says she is here to test her, and if she fails this test, eat her. Obviously, Persephone passed the test, and about a day after being told to head South from in the middle of Washington State, she starts getting attacked by these Medusa knock-offs calling themselves Stheno and Euryale, who had this annoying ability to not die after they were killed.

It forced Persephone to get creative in making their monster dust disperse.

She eventually got really bored with that and took to cutting their limbs off and then cauterizing their wounds. She had debated dragging them with her to make sure they didn't magically heal when out of sight, but she decided not to. Instead, she crushed their voice boxes, being careful not to apply so much force she outright smashed their necks apart and left them in a ditch.

Hadn't seen them since.

Then she ended up in southern California, San Francisco, and that weird internal radar thing went off, saying she was where she needed to be, but she had no clue where else to go until this smelly, homeless bag lady kind of just popped up, at the same time the Minotaur did, and out of the goodness of her heart, Persephone hefted the lady, crossed four lanes of speeding traffic, bounded up the hill to a platform occupied by some kids in armor—and was only just slightly breathing heavier than usual—and then she ended up on the other side of the river.

With the Minotaur bellowing after her.

The river water felt funny to Persephone, but it nonetheless did its job. Using her powers, the demigoddess formed a pair of serpentine dragons. One clamped down on the Minotaur's top and hefted him into the air, the other bit down on the waist, and then they tossed their heads in opposite directions, violently ripping the monster apart.

The dust fell into the churning river and that was that.

Then the bag lady turned out to be Juno, Persephone awed some Romans, made friends with the two demigods at the tunnel, Hazel and Frank, and eventually ended up in the principia with the praetor, Reyna, and had to tell her story from all that she remembered.

Persephone also had this minor issue she was dealing with, and it was enough to piss off the praetor.

"Okay, stop!" Reyna barked, holding a hand up. "What you're doing…is that a _potty dance_?"

Persephone laughed nervously. "I've been on the run for like, the past week, and gas station bathrooms are really gross, and I am _not_ going behind a tree, so I _really _need to go poop right now, like, really bad. It's that kind where you barely get your butt on the potty and then it all kind of just goes blasting out and-"

"Bathroom's down the stairs and to the left."

"Thanks!"

Persephone ran down to the facilities, cloak swishing behind her.

Reyna looked to her magic greyhounds. "TMI, don't you think?"

The dogs nodded.

"And why are the cutest ones always the weirdest ones?"

The dogs licked the sides of their faces.

Then, moments later, the dogs were whimpering and covering their noses, Reyna not faring much better, pinching her own nose shut. "How does someone so beautiful produce something that smells so awful?"

The dogs didn't have an answer.

Persephone soon returned, a look of absolute relief on her face.

"Did you light a match?" Reyna asked.

Persephone blinked, not familiar with the phrase and its meaning. "No…? Was I supposed to? I didn't see any."

Reyna made a note to get some probatios in here and do some cleaning. No doubt that poor toilet had suffered much at the glutes of Persephone's no-doubt shapely ass. It was hard to tell with that cloak on.

"Never mind. You were saying something about a hazy memory?"

Persephone finished recounting her story, and Reyna had Hazel escort the demigoddess up to Temple Hill so Octavian could gut his…newfound materials. Thinking of the augur brought a collective, devious smile to both Hazel and Reyna, and after the daughter of Pluto took the daughter of Poseidon away, leaving the praetor to herself and her dogs, she muttered, "Damn, I bet that girl's panties smell magnificent."

Reyna looked at her dogs. "Do you two think I've got a shot with her?"

Their ruby eyes stared at her unblinkingly.

"Right. Without a doubt, she's with that blonde boy-turned-girl from Circe's four years ago. Dammit. Do you think I've got a shot with her brother?"

At the mention of Shin'en—his actions in New Rome not forgotten three years ago when he destroyed Atlas—Aurum and Argentum both immediately shut off.

"Oh," Reyna blinked. "I'll take that as a no."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Brace yourself," Hazel warned her cousin. "Octavian's got some power, being a legacy of Apollo and the augur of the camp, but he's a little…_weird_."

"The way you say weird makes this guy seem like he's really nice, but he's got some screw loose that messes up his behavior and you're trying to be nice for his sake."

"That's pretty accurate, yeah. Come on, you'll see."

Persephone expected some things, but what she saw made her stare, point, look at Hazel to make sure she wasn't seeing things, look back at who was obviously Octavian, and then hide her subsequent fit of giggles behind not just the high collar of her cloak, but also behind its long sleeve.

The augur was a tall, very skinny boy, borderline anorexic, with pale skin and ear-length straw-blonde hair. He was wearing a purple camp shirt, socks and sneakers, and he was not wearing any pants. However, if he were, they would've been well protected by the large, royal purple diaper he was wearing.

In Octavian's left hand was the remains of another purple diaper, and in his right was a dagger. At his feet lay what were obviously the mutilated diaper's absorbent guts, and a little bit off to the side was an opened package of the diapers. As the augur was busy auguring, Persephone was able to get a few more details from Hazel.

"What's with the diapers? Does he have some kind of problem?"

Hazel shrugged. "I only got here a few months ago, but from what I've been told, Octavian's been wearing those diapers for years, ever since some guy showed up—pretty sure he was a god—fighting this other guy—pretty sure he was a Titan-"

"Percy and Atlas," Persephone muttered, remembering that battle.

"-and that first guy like, looked around and then was gone. Then he blew up Mt. Diablo." Hazel pointed and Persephone looked, taking in the big crater where she supposed a mountain was supposed to be. "Anyway, apparently Octavian was kind of this rude, pompous jerk before that happened, but after, he was a completely different person and became like…well, he became like this."

Seph looked at Octavian again, and could practically feel the spirit of her little brother nearby, smirking at what he had accomplished.

She didn't know if there was some joke to this that she wasn't getting, or if her brother was just that socially cruel, but she thought this was funny, and didn't mind giggling again.

Octavian finished his auguries and turned around, revealing a youthful face, light blue eyes, a weak chin yet still possessing a sharp jawline and pronounced cheek bones, as well as pouty lips. His eyes lit up at seeing the girls, reminding Persephone of a kid being told they can have any five things out of the candy store.

"Hazel, hey!"

Octavian ran over, diaper making this crinkling sound that had Persephone biting her cheek.

"How've ya' been?"

"I've been well, Octavian. How about you?"

"Terr~ific!" He held up the ripped diaper like it was a prize bass. "I just finished the auguries, and even though there's nothing from the gods, we're looking at some good fortune this year!"

"That's good news, buddy." Hazel said with a smile, her golden eyes glittering with mirth at the augur's strange behavior. "Octavian, this is-"

"Persephone Jackson!" Octavian breathed, his eyes sparkling. "Big sister to Percy, Retriever of the Master Bolt, Traveler of the Sea of Monsters, Bearer of the Sky, Navigator of the Labyrinth, and Hero of Olympus!"

Hazel looked at Persephone, a dozen questions running through her head, while Persephone just blinked. "Um…yeah..."

The daughter of Poseidon didn't remember any of that, but moved on.

She raised her hand, arm bent at an angle, and pointed at Octavian's diaper. "Uh…"

"They're comfy! And I like the purple. And it's how I give thanks to the gods."

"Why not wear pants? Or get a longer shirt?"

"Don't wanna."

"You don't, like, pee or poop in those, do you?"

"Nope!"

Persephone shared a look with Hazel, and the younger girl gave her a knowing look. _It's weird, I know, but he's a sweetheart. Just deal with it and let it slide._

"Okay…why do you cut open diapers?"

"Because they read better! We used to use actual animals, but that was messy, so we switched to teddy bears, but then I had the idea to use diapers, and I've been able to read the auguries much better ever since! The main reason I wear is out of gratitude."

"Good to know," Persephone nodded, making a note never to become _that_ grateful. "Did the auguries say anything about me?"

"Yep! They said you're good to go. Welcome to the legion, sister!"

In the next instant, it wasn't that Persephone's reflexes failed her or that she was so stunned her body locked up, but she decided to be nice. Octavian opened his arms up and threw them around her body, engulfing her in a bear hug she hadn't experienced since…damn, when had she experienced a big hug like this?

Octavian stepped back with a big, toothy smile on his face. "Oh, and Shin'en says…_remember_."

The augur's blew eyes bled red, and Persephone went rigid as a piece of steel rebar, her brain feeling like it was on the receiving end of a branding iron.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When she came to, she found Hazel frantically fanning her arms, and Octavian was just standing there. Persephone let out a groan as her noggin felt like she had just used it to break open walnuts, but at least she wasn't suffering from amnesia.

"That _butt_," she grumbled.

"What about a butt?" Hazel asked.

"My little brother. He knew this was going to happen, and instead of being here to help out and make it a short and simple thing, he instead decided to skip dimensions and leave some Mist programs in certain people."

Hazel stared at Persephone. "…huh?"

"I'll explain on the way back to Reyna. I think it's a good idea to tell her my memory returned."

"Your memory's back? That's great!"

Then there was this big horn-sounding thing from in the distance.

Octavian pumped a fist in the air. "Yes! Time for dinner, and then we're all gonna try to kill each other!"

"Huh. Just like Camp Half-Blood."

"Camp what?" Hazel asked.

"Oh, we are in for a fun conversation."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In light of Octavian's newfound mental situation a few years back, there was widespread talk of a movement to boot him from being the First Cohort's centurion, but that was unneeded; the augur proudly stepped down from the position, diaper and all, and proceeded to slice apart another diaper with a speed and precision so great with his dagger that it left many feeling very uncomfortable with their thoughts, and he proceeded to declare that the gods were in favor of him stepping down, and that the next centurion would be chosen by their hand.

After an interesting episode in the dining hall that ended with dozens of campers walking around with mashed potatoes pooled up in the seats of their pants, making them all feel like they had a messy accident, only one camper, sans the centurions, praetors, and Octavian, walked out of there with clean undies, and it was decided that he was the divinely chosen.

At least the guy had the body for it.

He also had no problem with keeping up the decades-long tradition of blaming every misfortune the camp endured on the Fifth Cohort, and so the socio-political standings depicted in canon still apply to this setting.

It seemed that Shin'en didn't care enough to alter the right minds to rectify this, or he intentionally did nothing for sole purpose of this scene.

"Victory for the Fifth!" Gwen half-heartedly cheered, the rest of her and Dakota's cohort giving their own glum grunts. "Uh, Hazel, Frank, you two show Persephone…um, _around_…I guess that'd be the right word for it."

"Yes, centurion," the two Romans said, bowing a bit at the waist, before turning around.

"Come on," Frank said. "Maybe we'll get close enough to see the fort and _not_ get hit by the flamethrowers."

"Nah," Persephone said. "I've got a better idea. I'm gonna break down those big doors and scatter their lines. You two rouse the Fifth and the Fourth after I'm done, and we'll take the fort together."

Frank and Hazel blinked. Sure, it was inspiring, and she made it sound so darn simple, but there was still the big question of _how_.

"Great plan, but how is it going to work?" Frank asked.

Grinning, Persephone held up a hand-sized device that appeared to be a pocket watch with the design of a crow around its edges, the wings seemingly caressing the watch.

"And that is…?"

"Karas armor. Brother gave it to me for my birthday last year…or year before last. I'm seventeen, going to be eighteen in August—totally missed out on junior year but that's perfectly okay with me—so yeah. Sixteenth birthday was the year before last."

Frank and Hazel shared a look at Persephone's junior year comment but didn't say anything.

"So, uh…how does the Karas armor work?" Hazel asked.

Persephone winked. "Watch and be amazed."

And without further ado, she promptly went walking right onto the middle of the battlefield, a bit of a skip in her step, humming a merry little tune. The Fifth and Fourth were organizing their formations, their respective centurions arguing about tactics, the legionaries obviously bored with those proceedings as they were an every-war game practice, so when the cosplaying daughter of Neptune went waltzing right in front of them, they took notice.

"Hey, newbie! Get off the field!"

There were more jeers similar to that, and the commotion was enough to grab the centurions' attention, with Gwen and Dakota looking right at Hazel and Frank when they recognized Persephone, both of them looking unhappy with what was going on, but Frank shot a return look that said _Bear with me_.

And then a disembodied voice echoed over the Field of Mars.

"_One…two…three…four…five…six…"_

Everyone went still, grabbing at weapons, eyes darting back and forth, searching for the source, but finding none. Unease and anxiety began gripping the legion, and up in the air, the pegasi of Reyna and Octavian were skittering, not exactly a fun thing to be a part of when a few hundred feet in the air. The rescue eagles were cawing, obviously uneasy.

"…_seven…eight…nine…and it is ten. Sway—sway to and fro—sway!"_

"Alright," Persephone said.

The watch's face peeled back to reveal a massive eye. It glowed amazingly bright and Persephone tossed it into the air. It stopped at eye-level and spun in all directions, before Persephone's arm cam across her body and snagged the watch and thrust it forward. Around her burst rings of glowing blue kanji, before they all came together in front of Persephone as a single, circular seal. She leapt forward into the seal, and as she came out the other side, she became covered head to toe in ninja-esque armor.

When she finished passing through the seal, Persephone spun through the air and landed in a crouch, her armor glowing red-hot and steaming. She stood up, the glow fading from her armor, and she raised the katana the watch had become up high enough to where part of the sword covered her face, leaving only the right, glowing blue eye of her helmet visible. She moved the sword over, now showing only her left eye, before spinning the sword and throwing it up in the air, and when it came back down, it landed perfectly across her back where it locked into place.

The chain around the katan's hilt, locking it into the scabbard, glowed brightly before breaking apart into pieces that faded away. Persephone grabbed the sword and drew it flicking and spinning it around her hand as if she had done this movement all her life. The blade made a high-pitched whine as it cut through the air, the metal glowing on its own, but catching the light of the fires made it even brighter, creating an awesome effect as it danced around Persephone's armored form.

Persephone then caught the blade, and her eyes glowed brighter. "_Attack!"_

Her armor glowed with ethereal light, and then she shot forward like a bullet, crossing the distance between where she stood and the fort's gate nearly in the blink of an eye. A streak of light like the tail of a comet followed her, and in her wake, she gouged a line through the earth. The Third and Second Cohort's the ones lined up in front of the fort, were knocked down and tossed about by Persephone's tailwind.

Defying physics, the armored demigoddess, with all that speed, force, and momentum behind her, instantly came to a complete stop right in front of the gates and struck them with her fist. In that moment, several tons of wood and metal were blasted apart as if met with a cannonball.

The tremors created by the gates getting blown off their hinges were enough to send the First Cohort stumbling around.

The Fifth and Fourth watched all of this happen with slack jaws. Up in the air, Octavian was waving his arms and cheering, and Reyna was in need of new panties, hers having become rather sticky. Scipio turned his head to give her an expression that perfectly conveyed how unimpressed and how unamused he was with his rider getting wet on his back.

Reyna smiled sheepishly.

Back down on the ground, Frank and Hazel took this moment to climb onto Hannibal the Elephant's back, kicking off the other stunned riders, and take charge of the moment.

"Romans!" Frank called. "Their lines are broken! Our time to take the battle is ours! Fight with me!"

Hazel drew her spatha. "Charge~!"

Not the greatest inspiring speech of all time, but it got the job done. Hannibal trumpeted and stomped forward as fast as his stubby legs would allow, and the cohorts below let loose a rebel yell and wen stampeding after the elephant, their demigod physiology not only allowing them to keep pace despite being decked out in full armor, but also allowing them go _faster_ than the elephant while also keeping that speed without getting winded.

Persephone, for her part, was satisfied with her accomplishments today, and eased herself out of the battle. She was Greek, after all, and this was a Roman military exercise. In her mind, it was best to let them do their thing and not get in the way.

After the battle, Mars himself descended, enjoyed the backbone Persephone showed, claimed Frank—much to his disappointment—and declared that Thanatos was chained up, so one was going to be staying dead any time soon, and that a quest was needed for Alaska, one that Frank was going to lead, and that Persephone was going to be a part of for the sake of "learning the proper respect."

A senate meeting was held, and while Reyna needed to play devil's advocate for the sake of procedure, Octavian was nothing but help for the budding quest, stating as how the Feast of Fortuna was swiftly approaching, and that the fate of Rome was on the line, and so to insure a decisive victory Death needed to be freed, and the quest needed nothing but the best resources the legion could provide, and that was how Frank, Hazel, and Persephone ended up with the best Imperial gold armor, the best Imperial gold weapons, magic bags packed full of supplies that were enchanted to hold more than their outward appearance provided and were protected from harm and getting lost from their wearer, as well as enough money, mortal and mythological, to buy a mansion.

Persephone could certainly say her most and least favorite part of the quest was when they were in Alaska, and she ended up stepping into a bog and was promptly pulled under into the muck. She never had a fear of drowning before, since it was dumb as Thalia fearing heights, but as she sank into the bog, the voice of Gaea taunting her the whole time, unable to move, unable to see, unable to _breathe_, Persephone began to understand why there were those who feared the water.

"Are you _serious_ right now?"

In the total darkness brought about by being encased in mud, her lids shut tight, Persephone was able to see her little brother just…_appear_…before her, a few feet away. And he did not look impressed.

"My _amazing _and _powerful_ big sister, the one who's supposed to be protecting me and all that, is about to die via drowning in mud. Seriously?"

The way he was looking at her, it was really pissing Persephone off. "You listen here, you little butt! I'll have you know that I've been dealing with a bunch crap lately—and _not_ just my period!—but Amazons, monsters, seers, harpies, and evil cyclopes! I'm a bit out of it right now, but give me about another three seconds, and I'll be just fine."

"Uh-huh, sure you will. Just FYI, if it was me in your position, I'd already be out of here."

"Yeah, because you have all that wonderful chakra."

"No, because I enjoy being encased in moose doo-doo as much as anyone else."

Persephone froze. "Moose…what?"

He smirked at her. "Muskeg, what you're currently sinking in, is primarily composed of moose scat. You're about to die in animal poop."

Persephone went _rocketing_ out of the muskeg, terrifying both Hazel and Frank. She landed on solid ground, covered in muck, and she screamed at the bog.

"I am not dying in poop!"

The Romans looked at each other, figuring they should've been accustomed to this by now given how many times the word "poop" had come out of Persephone's mouth already, but they weren't, and they were once again endlessly confused about this outburst.

"Yeah, I can safely say I don't want to die in poop, either," Frank said. "But, uh, that's muskeg."

"Yeah, and it's made mostly of moose poop."

Persephone said this with so much certainty that neither Frank nor Hazel wanted to correct the demigoddess, as they both knew this could be used later as teasing material.

Anyway, the quest finished off in line with canon, though during the battle with Polybotes, Persephone activated the Karas armor and discovered a very crucial fact: with it, she could kill the giants without the aid of a god.

She was no expert, and certainly wasn't as smart as Annabeth, but she did have a good head on her shoulders and theorized that the reason behind it was either that the armor itself had magical properties to it, ones that subverted the magic that protected the giants from death at the hands of a lone god or demigod, or the armor, being from the Shinto dimension, was immune to the magic altogether, or that the armor had with it the spirit of a god that she hadn't contacted her yet.

Whatever the case, the Karas armor was a game changer, and Gaea knew it.

Persephone was unanimously voted praetor after the battle, being raised up on shields, and she was given the offer by Hylla to join the Amazons any time she wished. Thanks to Thanatos being freed, Pluto must've been feeling outrageously benevolent, because all of the demigods that suffered mortal wounds not only didn't die but didn't even get a scar.

The next day, the _Argo II _descended from above, landed on the Field of Mars after the whole legion gathered, and when Annabeth got off the boat, she went sprinting straight to Persephone and broke their no PDA agreement by mashing her lips against hers.

Was it that they feared persecution for being gay? Not at all; with their powers, what did they have to fear from mortals? No, it was that PDA in general was disrespectful and inconsiderate to others, and it was Annabeth's firm opinion that showing homosexual PDA and not expecting any backlash was arrogant, and then getting upset with any backlash was hypocritical.

With that mindset shared with Persephone, they both agreed to a strict no PDA policy. Besides, their relationship was their business and no one else's. It wasn't their place, just as it wasn't anyone's, straight or otherwise, to be kissing, hugging, and touching all over each other in public.

However, after not seeing her girlfriend for roughly the same amount of time it took to complete a pregnancy, Annabeth did not care.

Neither did Persephone.

Reyna cared, though. _'Godsdammit it.'_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A big feast was had, and after a promise from her girlfriend to show her around New Rome, Annabeth ended up in the Garden of Bacchus with Reyna for what was going to remembered as a life-long conversation.

"You and Persephone, huh?"

"Yep. Why? Do a couple of girls dating ruffle your toga?"

Reyna snorted at Annabeth's teasing tone. "Hardly. I'm looking for a girl myself, but in this whole camp I still can't find one. I guess I'm too picky."

"Lower your standards," Annabeth shrugged.

"Nah, it's not so much a _standards _thing so much as it is a _I'm into some weird stuff_ kind of thing."

"Oh? What kind of stuff?"

"The same exact stuff you're into: nearly _all _of it."

Annabeth blinked. "Huh?"

Reyna looked at her with a knowing smile. "I doubt you remember me, but I was there on Circe's island the same time you and Persephone were. My sister, Hylla, was Circe's personal assistant, and I was in training."

"So, you know that I was originally a boy."

"You and me both."

Annabeth's stomach lurched up into her throat as she realized that she was in the presence of someone that could _finally_ answer all the questions she had revolving around Circe's potion and all of the apparent side effects.

"Yep, I was born Ricardo Avila Ramírez-Arellano. I grew up with a paranoid maniac of a war veteran for a dad, though Hylla tells me he used to be much kinder. After I was born, he went nuts, thinking the enemy was all around us, and so he fortified our house, surrounding it with big concrete walls topped with barbed wire, surveillance cameras, booby traps, barred windows, and doors with multiple locks.

"He pushed both of us into the dirt and deeper, training us. The only times we were allowed outside was in the backyard, under his strict supervisions, to run sprint and laps until we were puking, and then we had to run more. He pushed me the hardest because I was his son and was supposed to be the man of the family, bring honor to it all. Whatever.

"One day he went absolutely berserk, and so I grabbed this old saber over our fireplace—turns out that it was the same sword El Pirata Cofresí used, my ancestor—and used it on my dad, who had become a _mania_, who was vaporized by the sword because, as it turns out, it was made of Imperial gold. Go figure. Anyway, Hylla and I escaped and ended up on Circe's Island, where she offered me the same potion you took, but I did it willingly. A chance to escape the trauma and pressure of my dad and become my own person? Hell yeah. There were some side effects though."

Annabeth nodded. "I've been dealing with a heightened libido, I don't have a problem trying out just about every fetish and kink that's out there, I've nearly raped my girlfriend, trying to force her into having sex with me, and I will not lie: I'm a bit of a pervert."

Reyna's composure was rock solid, not a hint of amusement anywhere, not even in her eyes, and that's how Annabeth knew that she truly in the presence of a confidant who was going through the exact same things.

"Exactly what I deal with. It was something Circe was trying to work out of her potion. Yeah, it got the desired results of turning boys into girls for the sake of bolstering her sorceress haven, but all those girls were horndogs. The further along into puberty you were, the worse it is. I knew some girls that were in their late teens when they transformed, and they were caught fingering themselves in public they got so aroused and couldn't help themselves. You and I won't have that problem, since we were kinda young, but we're still feeling it.

"Circe determined it had to do with puberty. There were some boys, like ten and under, that took the potion, and they were just fine, but the older boys…well, you know what I'm talking about. Circe figured it was the hormones—going through puberty, your body is already out of whack, your hormones going haywire, making changes. Taking a potion that completely rewrites your sexual makeup is like kicking your gonads between the legs with a spiked boot: your body's changing enough as it is, but now it's been rewritten and has to work overtime to get back into gear. It's cranking out excess estrogen to makeup for what it thinks has been a however-years-old-you-are Delay.

"Because of all that estrogen getting pumped around our bodies, saturating our bloodstream and drenching our brains, our sex drives are practically though the moon. Getting horny is enough to impair anyone's decision making abilities, and since we're nearly super-horny most of the time, we're into some really kinky shit without even really being into it. Basically, we're sexually drunk and everything seems like a good idea."

"Yeah, I hear that. I took over a hundred nudes and mailed them to Persephone so she could pick and masturbate to the ones she liked the most, and we could try out whatever fetish I was going with in the picture."

Reyna let out a low whistle. "And how'd that go?"

Annabeth scowled. "It was stupid of me in the first place, but Aphrodite didn't help. This was over three years back, during the winter of 2007, but me, Grover, Thalia Grace—Jason's sister—a Hunter of Artemis, Persephone, and her brother, Shin'en-"

"Her brother? Yay tall, black hair, glows, red eyes, really scary?"

"That's him."

"Huh, go figure. I know exactly what you're talking about. He kicked Atlas' ass through Temple Hill, took us weeks to get it back into good shape, and he destroyed Mt. Diablo."

"Yep, and the day before that, we were in Arizona, where Ares and Aphrodite more or less ambushed us. Ares hustled us all inside this taco place he made with his powers, while Aphrodite had a one on one with Seph. The goddess talked about my girlfriend's love life, and how she could make it _interesting_—like throwing in extra girls, and even making her start feeling for her brother—and Seph told the goddess off, and so Aphrodite effectively mind-raped her, torturing her with sexual phantasms of Shin'en."

Reyna turned a faint shade of green.

"I'll…spare you those details, but Shin'en wasn't happy, even killed both of the gods, and even after a year and a half, that trauma still lingered in Persephone. She told me that every time she did try to masturbate to my nudes, she kept having flashbacks to Aphrodite, and couldn't do it. Then I got really stupid, and tried to forcefully overcome that mental barrier, and she threw me across the room like I was a child's toy."

"Damn."

"Yeah, but we've gotten past it. We still haven't had sex yet, but I'm fine with waiting until she's ready." Annabeth shrugged. "Whenever I can't help it, I just go somewhere private and take care of myself."

"Same. Funnily enough, the praetors are traditionally a boy and a girl, and they're expected to work very closely together. The praetors even have their own private barracks, that are conveniently soundproof. Jason was a pansy and couldn't handle me walking around in my panties—he'd blush and go scurry somewhere else—but that was okay. I'm into girls, another thing about the potion.

"Whatever sex you prefer before you take it becomes your locked-in preference. So, if you're a straight boy, you turn into a lesbian. If you're a gay boy, then you turn into a straight girl. Actually happened a few times, and some of the girls had to leave the island because they needed a man so bad. Anyway, Jason couldn't do any good for me, so every time I had to do it myself."

"Dildo?"

"Yep. I actually have a very big toybox since my sister's the Queen of the Amazons. Free, next-day shipping right into my private sanctuary."

Annabeth whistled appreciatively. "That's awesome."

"I get you the same thing, if you want."

"Why would you do something that generous for a girl you literally just met?"

Reyna shrugged.

"You and I are the same. We share a special kind of bond, having taken the potion, and we're both the leaders of our camp. We've got expectations to uphold, images to maintain, burdens to lift, and we've got to be the superheroes the kids think we are. We're strong, but we still need our private time. Besides, you've got Persephone's heart, and have kept for all this time, and I think keeping a relationship like that for that long, in this family, deserves a reward."

Annabeth was honestly very deeply touched. "I…I don't know what to say."

Reyna smiled. "You don't have to say anything. Just be good to Persephone. I can tell she's been through a lot, and that you mean a lot to her….And if you two ever want to have a threesome, I'm down."

"Noted. And thanks, Reyna. You've answered a lot of questions regarding Circe's potion that I haven't been able to for four years now."

"That's what friends are for."

And then the _Argo II _opened fire on New Rome.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Dude," Persephone said to Leo, her brow arched. "What the Hades?"

The son of Hephaestus looked absolutely miserable as he stared at his feet like a child caught stealing from the cookie jar, only instead of stealing cookies, he fired flaming ballistae at a population, and probably killed people, and probably started a war.

"I-I don't _know_. I felt—_cold_. My body just started _moving_. I could feel myself moving, I knew what I was doing, but it was like a dream. I was just—I was just _doing_ things. I couldn't stop. I-I-I…I'm…Persephone, guys, I'm so sorry."

The other six all had their eyes on him, and Leo feared he was going to be vaporized, what divine power all these half-bloods shared was going to be combined and then projected from their eyes, and _poof_, no more Leo.

It didn't happen, obviously.

Persephone shrugged her shoulders. "Okay."

Her flippant dismissal of Leo's actions sent the whole congregation into a stupor.

"What?" Leo squeaked. "Just…_okay_?"

"Yeah. I don't think you're lying, and with all the monsters and stuff out there, there's probably one that can do possession stuff, so that's probably what happened. You just got possessed by one of Gaea's peons."

"That might be true," Jason said, "but convincing New Rome of that is going to be the hard part."

Persephone shrugged again. "It's a good thing we have this river called the Styx that we can only swear the truth by, or make unbreakable oaths on, therefore giving us total credibility even without a shred of evidence."

"Okay, didn't think of that…but the legion's still going to be blood-thirsty, particularly for Leo, and all of Greece, next."

Persephone displayed her concern over a demigod civil war with another dispassionate shrug. "If they don't want to listen to reason and accept that it was Gaea possessing Leo, making it Gaea who attacked, and Gaea should be the one that Rome goes to war with, then oh well."

"Oh well?" Jason echoed, eyes narrowing as an edge crept into his voice. "We're talking about the legion going to war with your camp! The Greeks will be annihilated, and Rome will be left to fight Gaea and her giants all by ourselves."

"Bold of you to assume Rome has a chance against Greece."

A spark danced off of Jason, his pride as a Roman coming to light. "Rome will destroy Greece, just like we did in the old days."

"Oh, is that so?"

Persephone flexed her hand, and Jason was then subject to the most intense and uncomfortable feeling ever in his life. He had been duped into pulling the fake, shocker gum stick before his powers had fully matured, and received that numbing tingle up his arm. Right now, his whole body was feeling like that, only a lot worse.

He was also pinned to the ceiling in a spread-eagle form, and was dimly aware of the sudden shouting going on, and the smirk Persephone had on her face as she looked at him with her hand out. A little voice told Jason that since she was the daughter of Poseidon, she had power over water, and the human body was over three-fourths water, and she was in control of all that water.

And then suddenly she wasn't.

With a gasp, Jason dropped, his reflexes kicking in so he landed on his feet with only a slight bend in his knees, but vertigo overcame him and he feel forward, his reflexes once again rearing and his arms shot out, catching himself on the table. When the black spots danced their way out of his vision, he looked at Persephone, who was still smirking.

"Water is the most abundant element on the planet. Not just in the oceans, but in the air, and in all the plants and animals. Water is _my_ element, so I've got the most resources at my disposal. That includes you, or your body, anyway, and all the bodies of Rome." Persephone's smirk lessened, her normally vibrant sea-green eyes dimming and darkening. That cloak she was wearing didn't help with creating a friendly image.

"For Rome's sake, cousin, I'd start praying Reyna and Octavian can talk some sense into the legion."

Done with this episode, Persephone spun around, her cloak swishing and her hair flipping as she took her leave.

"Is…is she okay?" Hazel asked. "I've never seen her like that before."

"Oh, I think I know what's up," Annabeth said. "You guys do something productive. I'll go talk to Persephone."

The blonde took her leave, and the five remaining half-bloods in the dining room were left to stew in their mixed emotions.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Annabeth had forgotten what week of the month it was, since she was preoccupied with helping Leo, wrangling the campers, blowing some steam by stealing Piper's breakfast on occasion, and of course, all of the anxiety that had built up waiting to see Persephone again after nine months. You'd think having her girlfriend so strongly on her mind would bring details like the date into clarity, but they did not.

However, Annabeth had no problem remembering just what week it was when she gently entered Persephone's room and found the sea princess sobbing hysterically into her pillow as if she had just run over her own puppy.

Horny? Nope.

Blood? No.

Cramps? Hardly noticeable.

Hotel? Trivago.

Nah, Persephone's period manifested in very bad mood swings, which could be pitifully funny in some situations, and potentially lethal in others, like just now. Annabeth was kicking her own butt for not noticing. Going from totally nonchalant about a Gaea-possessed Leo potential committing mass murder and starting a demigod civil war to downright sadistic with Jason, blood-bending him into the ceiling while levying the threat of doing the same thing—on a lethal level—to the whole legion, the same legion that had hailed her as a hero and elected her praetor.

Persephone's mood swings were just that, and had only gotten worse as the years progressed since she started puberty. Literally, she could go from happy and sunny, to downright murderous, to crying her heart out in shame, and then right back to happy. During school, she was better at controlling herself, because she was more concerned for her surroundings and didn't want to murder any more mortals than what she already had, but had camp, her mindset was completely different.

To this day, Annabeth still had no idea how the Stoll cousins had managed to slip into Persephone's cabin and make off with all her panties to put them in random, conspicuous places for everyone to eventually find them, but once Persephone got a hold of them, during her period, she tossed them into the lake from a football field's distance away, and from that same distance, hydrokinetically held them under until they passed out.

The Stolls nearly died, Nico and Bianca both confirming that their souls were rapidly slipping away. Persephone had yanked the water out of their lungs, but the present Apollo veterans very nearly burned out their powers resuscitating the cousins.

Luke had been absolutely livid, and Persephone, where she had been panicking and crying, was instantly back to murderous intentions when Luke got in her face. Dionysus himself had to step in, as this was before Zeus' all-call to Olympus, and had to invoke divine powers to keep the two from trying to kill one another, as Luke was quite adept at slicing through grapevines, and Persephone was in full control of the water therein.

After things settled, Persephone got all her underwear back, she apologized to the Stolls and Luke, all three of which were also very sorry for their actions, and the camp unanimously agreed to never speak of this again, and to _never_ go into Persephone's cabin without her express permission, and definitely not with the intention of a panty raid.

So, yeah. You could say Annabeth got a bit nervous when her girlfriend was going through her cycle. Besides the little bit of blood in her underwear, none had been shed…yet.

Persephone had already killed her deadbeat stepfather, Gabe, and while she showed no remorse for it whatsoever, Annabeth knew that at the Judgement Pavilion, that act was certainly going to be brought up against her, and it was against the blonde's conscious and devotion to Persephone to allow her to kill another person, especially out of a hormone-induced moment of impaired judgement.

Annabeth sat on the edge of the bed, and gently patted Persephone's back until she stopped crying out of shame for losing control of herself like she had. When she was done, Persephone turned her head to where the left side of her face was visible, tear-streaked and red.

She sucked the mucus back into her nose. "I hate being a girl sometimes."

"It has its downsides," Annabeth agreed. "But we have a whole lot more fun than boys do."

"How?"

"We can call our female friends our girlfriends and no one cares, but if boys called their guy friends their boyfriends, there'd be some looks. We can go on epic shopping sprees and try on tons of clothes and stuff our faces with all the junk food we want."

"Yeah, but then it still ends up in the toilet anyway, just as smelly as anything a boy makes. We're not special. We still pee, poop, fart, sweat, burp, and throw up like every boy on the planet does, but we have this added thing where we bleed from our muffins every month for a week, and there's a whole bunch of other gross stuff that happens during then that I don't want to talk about."

Annabeth shook her head. "You are the only girl I know in my entire life that speaks so openly about her nasty bodily functions but refuses to use the proper term for her genitals."

"That's because the v-word sounds weird and gross and disgusting, and the p-word is rude and demeaning, and the c-word is just evil."

After so many years of this, Annabeth knew when to concede in the face of Persephone's stubbornness, especially during this time of the month. It was not wise to set her off, especially when they were in the air and she could make a storm cell appear and blow the _Argo II _clean from the sky.

"Whatever you say, Seaweed Brain."

"Exactly, it is whatever I say. Glad to see that all those owl feathers in your brain haven't made you stupid, Wise Girl."

"And that's how we know that _I _wear the pants in this relationship."

"You might wear the pants, but I wear the cloak of a multi-national criminal organization comprised of near-godlike beings with plans of world domination who have the power to pull it off."

"I see you're feeling better."

"Yep. Now let's get back to the mess hall so I can apologize."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Annabeth knew that the ups and downs were very far from over, and it was the conversation a few days later in the mess hall, during breakfast, that things really went sideways. Not in some dire situation, but in terms of philosophy, reality.

In essence, things got deep.

It only made sense that it was the daughter of the oceans that brought up these observations.

Jason was going over a dream he had, and Persephone was eating a big plateful of blue waffles…_ahem_…topped with melting butter and generous amounts of syrup.

"It's bad—the legion pressured Octavian and Reyna into calling for war, and now they're all on their way East, no doubt to Camp Half-Blood."

"Mm," Persephone grunted, putting a bite into her mouth.

"Porphyrion has taken over the acropolis in the original Athens, and he's got an army of monsters, and a dozen giants with him. I recognized Enceladus and Polybotes, and the giant called out others by name: Thoon, Periboia, and Hippolytus."

"Neat," Persephone said, swallowing her third bite now.

"Gaea's rising and the planet's starting to feel it. Avalanches, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions—hitting major cities. Factories are getting destroyed and people are dying in them or losing their livelihoods."

"Bummer."

Jason's eye twitched. "I also saw Nico and Bianca. They were trapped in a bronze jar by these two giants, pretty short for giants but just as ugly, called Otis and Ephialtes, twins-"

"Twin giants? Gross."

Jason's eye twitched a bit more, and the other half-bloods were starting to get nervous.

"-and they were talking about this big celebration they were going to have in Rome—_the _Rome—and they were talking about this mistress they had. They didn't say her name, just kept calling her _the Weaver_ but whoever can scare a couple of giants into avoiding her name is bad news for us."

"I guess."

Persephone polished off five whole waffles during Jason's whole speech, and her nonchalant attitude to these very real threats was enough to finally send the son of Jupiter over the edge. He slammed his hands down on the table and the ship rocked and groaned as it was suddenly battered by a brief, powerful gust.

"_What _is wrong with you? I'm talking about the end of the world here, and you're stuffing your face with waffles and acting like we're cancelling our weekend trip to the lake!"

Instead of popping Jason's head off his shoulder, Persephone instead leaned forward on her elbows, bracing her head between the backs of her fingers with a smile.

"Well, you see cousin, when I was twelve…"

And then the next thirty straight minutes were occupied by the daughter of Poseidon going over every single one of her feats, accomplishments, and achievements, from something as minor as killing the likes of Procrustes with his own magical beds, to fighting gods and Titans, with Annabeth throwing in a comment here and there about something Persephone forgot.

"…and just recently, Frank and Hazel helped get us all the way up to Alaska, where we freed Death, defeated a ghost legion, and killed Alcyoneus, all before racing all the way back down to Camp Jupiter, where defeated a monster army, defeated Polybotes, and I got named praetor. So, yeah, I apologize if I don't seem overly concerned with the same things I've been doing for the past five years."

Everyone besides Annabeth was starring stunned at Persephone, Frank and Hazel having had no clue they had been travelling with a certified hero, having a list of accolades just as great as anyone from the myths, and Jason, Piper, and Leo having heard way more about Shin'en, were in the same boat as Frank and Hazel.

And that's when things turned.

Persephone looked down at her plate, some butter still sitting in the syrup. "And after five years of doing this, I'm starting to wonder if I'm actually accomplishing anything."

"Persephone," Annabeth said carefully. "What are you talking about?"

The sea princess looked at the blonde, completely serious.

"Think about it: we averted WWIII in '05 by getting the Master Bolt back to Olympus to stop Zeus and Dad from going to war. Then pretty much everything after that leading up to the Battle of Manhattan was preparation for saving the world from Kronos and the Titans taking over. Now we're having to deal with the literal earth working against us, bringing with her beings that are born to kill the gods themselves."

Persephone shrugged.

"Sure, we'll win. Seem people are going to die along the way, maybe someone here, maybe all of us, maybe none of us, but we'll win; that's just how these things work. But what are we going to actually accomplish? Yeah, we saved the world by averting godly war. Yeah, we saved the world from Titan rule. Yeah, we're going to save the world from the world, but to what end? I mean, what's next? Another Primordial? Aliens? Some other major mythological villain? Are we really saving the world, or just keeping it intact enough for the next guy to try his luck?"

"That's not what's bothering you," Annabeth said. "I know you, skipping school to fight the bad guys is what you love, so if there's another threat on the horizon, you're going to right there to kick its ass. What's _really _bothering you, Persephone?"

She was silent for a long time, staring down at her syrup-covered plate. And then she finally spoke.

"I'm worried about the _people_. From what I've seen, we haven't done a damn thing to save the world. Got the Bolt back—whoopty-doo. Did that end world hunger, or bring about world peace? Did all the world governments come together and pool their resources for the betterment of the planet? Did everyone get a job, a home, an education to start a better future? Did we end pollution, deforestation? Did any of that happen after we stopped Kronos?

"Heh-heh, _nope_! Politicians are still raking in millions of dollars from places they shouldn't be, those factories Jason was talking about are still pumping out their gunk into the waterways, welfare still exists, crime, murder, rape—yeah, the gods were actually making a little bit of headway after Percy told them off, with the atmosphere clearing up, the harvest was looking good, divorce rates were down, marriage was up, the waters were clearing out, but now that Zeus closed them all up on Olympus, the world's sinking right back to where it was.

"Obviously, we can't count on the gods to do their freakin' jobs, and after we beat Gaea, all of what I just described is going to keep on happening, so we're down to two options to really save the world: either we let Gaea have her way, and civilization as we know it will end—no more gods, demigod camps, skyscrapers, rush hour, factories, just no more anything besides clean water the world over, green meadows and parries, healthy forests, and clear air—_or _we do it ourselves."

Annabeth's heart sank as she realized where Persephone was now going. She saw the spark appear in those sea green eyes as she studied them intently, searching for any hint of Shin'en's genjutsu, some indication that this was another one of sub-programs, but she found none. Of course, Annabeth appreciated the possibility that she was under a genjutsu that prevented her from seeing the telltale reflection of the Sharingan in Persephone's eyes, a sure indicator of Shin'en's influence, but she knew better.

Everything out of Persephone's mouth was coming from her soul, and during the course of this monologue, she had just found the answer to what she understood to be the world's problems, and Annabeth knew the reaction her girlfriend was about to get was going to crush her spirit.

"Think about it: _we've _got the power, _we're_ here, right now, and _we _can do it. Annabeth's got the brains, Piper's got the voice, Jason's got the wind and the lightning, Leo's got the fire and the mechanical knowhow, Frank can turn into just about anything, Hazel's got the ground-power and can bring in any money we might need, and I've got the water. Guys, we can do it! With our powers, we can get this world back on the right track and it's like Uncle Ben said: _with great power comes great responsibility_, and we've got the great power, and I think the great responsibility goes way beyond just fighting mythological bad guys—so who's with me!?" Persephone grabbed her glass and raised it high, sloshing a little bit of blue chocolate milk onto her hand.

"…guys?"

As she looked around the mess hall, Persephone wasn't greeted with shining eyes and invigorated smiles. She didn't see enthusiasm and hope. Instead, she saw guilt, downtrodden gazes, downcast looks, and self-loathing. Even Coach Hedge, who should've been all about saving the planet, couldn't lift eyes to look Persephone in the face.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said scathingly. "You can't possibly be serious right now—we've got the power and the duty to protect this world, even from itself, _literally_, and you guys want to play hooky?"

"Persephone…" Piper started. "It's not that we don't _want_ to do that, it sounds like an amazing idea, it's just that…it's just that…"

"Just _what_, Piper? We're just kids? It's not our place to affect the mortal world? You don't think we can do it? Or is it a _what's the point _kind of thing?"

Piper shook her head. "It's none of that…it's that all of us…well…after this quest is over, and we save the world…we…we were going to go lead normal lives…you know…go to school, graduate, get degrees, start careers, get houses, begin a family…"

Persephone stared at Piper, her mouth open and her eyes slightly wide in utter disbelief. The sea princess swept her gaze across the deafeningly silent mess hall, searching for any hints of dissonance from Piper's "we" sentiment, but as she looked around, she saw nothing to indicate that Piper was wrong.

Annabeth had her face in her hands, which told Persephone all she needed to know about her girlfriend's thoughts on this matter. Persephone looked back at Piper.

"A _normal _life? News flash, girlfriend: we ain't _fucking _normal. The life you just described? Yeah, that's not ours. That's for the boring little humans that don't have powers who go day to day wishing they could do something about their circumstances. _Seven half-bloods shall answer the call_, right? Well, there's seven of us here, so that means we are literally being called by a higher power-"

"Well, maybe none of us wanted to be called by a higher power," Piper said sharply. "Maybe we just wanted a _boring little human _life with a mom and a dad right there with us all the time to love us and raise us and take us to the park and-"

"And change your underwear after you poop all over yourself," Persephone rolled her eyes, making Piper scowl. "Yeah, I get not wanting to have had this life, but we didn't get a choice. Here we are, in a magic trireme, with magic weapons and magic powers, off to save the world from the Primordial deity Gaea and her Giant kids. This is the hand you've got to play with, and you don't have a choice."

"We _do _ have a choice," Piper returned, her eyes flashing a dangerous pink, and for a brief instant, Persephone swore she saw her brother leaning forward, naked, his lips pursed, but she blinked and the horror was gone. Piper didn't miss Persephone's change in countenance and took it to mean that she was breaking through, and so she forged onward.

"We're pretty much stuck where we are on this quest, but after that, then we can choose where we want to go and what we want to be. If you want to be Superman and be a worldwide force for good, cleaning up the oceans and destroying polluting factories and getting jerked all over on quests given by the gods, then all the power to you. We, us—we're dropping this quest thing forever. We're ditching the magic trireme, and the weapons, and the powers, and we're going to just be normal teenagers, dealing with high school drama, finals, and bills."

Persephone glowered at Piper.

"You've completed one quest—_one_. I've completed four big ones and was the commanding officer in a world-saving battle. I went from Camp Half-Blood to LA and down into the Underworld to have a chat with Hades himself before dueling Ares in single combat on the Santa Monica beach. I went into the Sea of Monsters and brought back the Golden Fleece, saving Camp Half-Blood. I held up the sky and helped free the captive Artemis. I went into Labyrinth and routed an army, saving Camp Half-Blood a second time, and then I held Manhattan for three days with roughly a hundred demigods, fending off wave after wave of Kronos' army. Not to mention all the minor quests therein and after the fact, and yet here I am, back and ready for more. So what does that say about all of you?"

"It says we're weak," Piper said. "Fine, I admit it. We're not as strong as the great Persephone Jackson, the girl who's done all these miraculous things and can't go five hours without saying the word _poop_. Makes you wonder what kind of stuff she's into when no one's looking."

In hindsight, insulting the girl who had already displayed the willingness to control your blood was not a good idea, especially when she was on passionate tirade about saving the world. However, emotions were a very deadly thing, and Piper had been sent over the edge by Persephone, and frustration got the better of her.

Persephone was not amused.

The air temperature plummeted to freezing levels. The liquid in everyone's cups froze over. The magic screens Leo had installed shut off, a layer of frost creeping over them. The glass of the portholes cracked and shattered. The ship began creaking and rocking, and Persephone looked like something from the depths of Hell.

Her lids were peeled back, and her nostrils were flared. Her upper lip was curled, parting slightly from her bottom to reveal a scant visage of teeth, and her nose and brows were scrunched, all of those muscles having been maneuvered into the visage of a snarling animal. Her bright green eyes had darkened so much that, with the way her bangs were falling over her face, created the effect that her eyes had gone completely black.

Piper felt her shorts rapidly warming between her legs, the warmth pooling around her and then flooding over the sides of her chair. She couldn't breathe, and she didn't know if that was because her blood was blocking her windpipe, or her diaphragm was locked into place, or if there just wasn't any oxygen in the mess hall.

Through the shaking, Piper was just barely able to make out Annabeth grabbing Persephone and kissing her on the lips, and then everything stopped.

The kiss might've made for a beautiful, hopeful, heartwarming sight had everyone not been left with absolute terror still running through their veins.

Annabeth slowly broke away, her grey eyes sparkling with tears for Persephone's sake, and Persephone gave the rest of the Seven one last sweeping, disappointed gaze.

"The world is doomed. Not because of money, or greed, or because of evil, or gods, or monsters, or anything like that. The world's doomed because the people with the power to change the world lack the will to do so."

And with that ending statement, with words that were more appropriate for the mouth of Shin'en than his big sister, Persephone stood with enough force to throw her chair back and departed the mess hall, her steps thundering like the roar of cannons.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**And this is where it ends for some time. I hope that this 13k+ monster of a chapter will be enough to hold you until I publish my novel, and if isn't…bummer.**_

_**Lots and lots of meat to this one. The important details of Circe's genderbender potion are revealed with Reyna being in the same boat as Annabeth, a twist I'm sure none of you were expecting. Octavian fulfils the Third Constant thanks to genjutsu, and I thought having an Octavian that wasn't a conniving asshole would be a nice change of pace from most fics. The Karas armor brings with it the ability to kill the Giants without aid from a god, and the whole transformation sequence can be found on YouTube by searching something along the lines of "Karas water demon fight." **_

_**Of course, the major points all revolve around Persephone. While she obviously doesn't exist in canon, she is the substitute for canon-Percy, and she is not like him. Canon-Percy, in the very opening passages of **_**The Lightning Thief**_**, says he didn't want to be a half-blood. Throughout the rest of series, that sentiment prevails, and even comes to a head in the **_**Trials of Apollo**_**, when Apollo comes to his house and asks for his help in facing the emperors and saving the Oracles, to which Percy vehemently declines on the grounds of catching up on school and not worrying his family anymore, the consequences of which are the death of Jason Grace, the deaths of dozens of Roman demigods and nature spirits, and probably some other dead important things that escape my memory.**_

_**Point is that Percy didn't want to be a half-blood and do half-blood things, whereas Persephone **__**loves**__** being a half-blood and doing half-blood things.**_

_**There's also the final, closing argument. **_

_**Who do you guys side with? Piper or Persephone?**_

_**Now, if all goes well, the next time we'll see each other I'll be telling you how I'm a published author and the release date for my book is on (insert date here).**_

_**And if not, well…another chapter!**_

_**In the meantime, Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	5. Shin'en Says: No, You Won't

_Shin'en Says: No, You Won't._

_**Do not get excited, for my novel is not finished, but it is up from its original 71k, to 90k. **_

_**I ended up buying **_**Jedi: Fallen Order**_**, and have since done three playthroughs, one on Jedi Master, and I will never do that again, and I also gave into fantasy and started a new Dynasty on my ancient **_**NCAA Football 11**_**, and created players by the names of Jason Grace, Percy Jackson, Luke Castellan, Leo Valdez, Charles Beckendorf, Frank Zhang, Annabeth Chase, Reyna Ramirez, Hazel Levesque, and Piper McLean, as QB, HB, CB, TE, WR, MLB, LE, LG, RE, and RG respectively, with the girls all being these massive, 6'7, 350lb linemen. I managed to recruit only Jason, Percy, Luke, Leo, and Annabeth, the rest all betrayed me and went to other teams, but I'm steamrolling through the SEC with five demigods on my team, so that's pretty cool.**_

_**The Inspiration for that came from the first chapter of this very story.**_

_**The reason I've broken my vow and have since returned to FF, at least for the moment, is because after being bogged down by college, work, the novel itself, and distracting videogames, I want some positive feedback, and I feel that in the madness we find ourselves in, you all deserve a few thousand words of happiness.**_

_**Now let's put the spaghetti in the machine!**_

_**PS: the title of this chapter comes from a Batman video on YouTube of roughly the same name. Go find it to get a feel for how this chapter is going to go.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_In brief summary: Naruko returned to the Hidden Leaf and revealed the existence of the Akatsuki to the village's leaders, and also lied about killing Shin'en Y__ū__rei, who is also her fiancé, and the father of her child, whom she is two weeks pregnant with. Her mission is to turn her friends away from the hatred and vengeance that they've become marred in, and if she succeeds, the Akatsuki will call off Project Tsuki no Me, and will instead divert their incredible energies to helping Naruko on a global scale. If she fails, the Infinite Tsukuyomi will activate, bringing unquestionable peace to the world, and Naruko and Shin'en will leave forever and start a new life in Persephone's world._

_Currently, Naruko just finished an epic battle with her old friends, serving as an outlet for all of the anger and hatred they felt for Shin'en, as she was the one who helped "kill" him. All by herself, she defeated the combined efforts of Hinata, Shino, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, Lee, Tenten, and Guy, while Minato and Jiraiya stood back and watched, the former teetering on insanity, and the latter aware of Naruko's lies, and is heartbroken and betrayed._

_Also, Deidara blew Gaara's face up._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_The Land of Wind_

_October 11, 1017 A.S._

Sasori, being made of wood, was physically incapable of sweating. Being made of wood, he was physically incapable of performing _all _natural excretory functions. He could not sweat, cough, sneeze, blow his nose, spit, cry, fart, urinate, or defecate. He couldn't even ejaculate and further his bloodline, having sacrificed all of his humanity to become the perfect, immortal art.

And yet, despite all of this, as he beheld his opponent's mechanical monstrosity of a puppet, there was one, abnormally large bead of liquid that visible trailed down the back of his false red hair.

"What…the _fuck_…is _that_…?"

"This?" Kankuro, the younger brother of the captured Kazekage, smirked. "This is the future of puppeteering!"

Long story short, all that time Kankuro had spent holed up in his workshop was done so in the creation of the big, golden robot that was featured in his Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, the exact depiction of such can be found on the interwebs.

Sasori stared at the future with as much disbelieving emotion as his face could allow, being made of the special chakra wood, and he slowly looked back at Kankuro.

The young man had an extremely unkempt beard and mustache, filled with grease and oil stains, and bits of food. He was wearing the black, catlike bodysuit the last intel report depicted him as wearing, only it was patched in several places, and smelled like it hadn't been washed in years…or maybe that was just Kankuro himself. The man's pupils were dilated, and his sclera was covered in an intricate pattern of blood vessels. Foam and spittle lined his hairy lips, and the shaggy mane on his head could not be contained by any manmade contraption.

As Kankuro began a mad monologue about all the things he had done to make his robot, all the parts and the pieces, the means to get them, the weapon systems, its awesome destructive power, etc., Sasori found himself internally monologuing in despondency.

'_Kids these days, unbelievable. All about being the biggest and baddest shinobi, knowing the most destructive techniques, being the most powerful….Back in my day, we had this great appreciation for subtlety, misdirection, and the quieter aspects of the shinobi combat, like not actually fighting each other so much as laying traps, using the tiniest distractions to complete the kill.'_

Like right now, for example.

Kankuro's rant was cut short when he suddenly went rigid, his eyes going wide and mouth going slack. Steadily, blood began leaking from the corners of his piehole, adding more filth to his beard, and he just fell over. The robot fell over too, creating a massive dust cloud of sand and a bang that might've been heard on the other side of the desert.

Eyes rolled into the back of his head, little black particles began rapidly filtering out of Kankuro's mouse and flew through the air towards Sasori, where they disappeared in the lengths of his sleeves.

A great step forward into making himself the perfect art was integrating the strengths of his puppets into his body. Namely the Iron Sand and Gold Dust of his Third and Fourth Kazekage puppets.

Sasori turned from the stinking corpse of the Fifth Kazekage's older brother, not even bothering with taking him for a puppet, or that mechanical embarrassment. Not even for parts or at the very least, scrap.

As the Akatsuki Puppeteer strode away to catch up with Deidara, the sand under Kankuro steadily turned red.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Hidden Leaf_

Naruko was feeling great, the greatest she had felt since she learned she was pregnant. Her friends were all in great moods after her impromptu birthday party. There weren't any presents, but the company and the high spirits were good enough for the blonde kunoichi.

The food was great, too.

Ichiraku was more than happy to come over to the Namikaze house and provide enough dinner to feed everyone three times over, the father/daughter duo absolutely over the moon that Naruko was back safe and sound.

As was everyone else.

It seemed that _he _had been the sole source of all the hatred and malice and negativity in the whole village, because once news rapidly spread about _his_ demise, at Naruko's hands no less, the whole atmosphere changed. The clouds broke and sun started to shine, and all of her friends were suddenly her friends again, smiling, happy, and reminiscing about the old days, when they were all kids.

"Remember when I was stilling wetting the bed," Ino started.

Hinata giggled lightly. "Yeah, and we all put on some of your pull-ups so you wouldn't feel embarrassed every time we had a sleepover."

"Good times," the Yamanaka said wistfully.

"I remember when we all thought Naruko was a boy," Choji said. "Kiba refused to believe you were a girl right up until you got so annoyed with him you dropped your pants and we all got a free lesson in anatomy."

Laughs abounded through the spacious Namikaze living room.

However, the mention of Kiba brought the mood down very quickly.

Shino adjusted his glasses. "Naruko…ever since you returned, I have not heard you ask about Kiba, despite his notable absence. Why?"

If Naruko hadn't already thought of this, she might've found herself in a situation. As it was, all eyes were suddenly on her as they realized the same thing. Kiba was by no means anonymous; besides Naruko, he had been the loudest, brashest, most bombastic member of the whole group. Him not being anywhere was as noticeable as the Hokage Monument, and considering that the bond between Naruko and Kiba had been third behind the bond between Naruko and Sasuke, and Naruko and Hinata, Naruko not mentioning his clear lack of attendance, at the battle and at her birthday party, was actually rather concerning.

"I know what happened to Kiba," Naruko said, genuine sadness and depression in her voice. "After the Chunin Exam, he went insane after Tsume's brutal training. He ate Akamaru and went feral. Been locked in a cage ever since."

"How would you know that?" Sasuke asked, coal-black eyes hard. "Being away like you've been with the Akatsuki."

"Zetsu's jutsu lets him travel through the molecules of any environment," Naruko said. "It's like a super version of the Hidden Mole Jutsu, only not limited to just the earth. I've even seen him go through lava without a problem, despite being mostly plant. Anyway, I asked him to check on the Leaf for me, see how you guys were doing. He told me about Kiba."

In this room full of clan heads and/or Jonin-level ninja that had all been well-versed in the expansive history of jutsu, no one was terribly shocked to learn of a jutsu that made one…_one_ with the actual elements, and the implications of such a power were not lost on any of them, and therefore there wasn't any voicing on the matter.

It was also clear that Naruko had no intention of pressing the matter, and so it was dropped.

Sadly enough, it was also on this melancholy note that the party ended. In rapid succession, the Rookie Nine bid their farewells for the night and returned to their compounds/houses, along with the present sensei and anyone else that wasn't an explicit member of the Namikaze family, save for him.

Sasuke offered a charming smile, one that would have nearly every woman in the village swooning and just a few steps away from spreading their legs. On Naruko, it had no effect beyond getting an eye-role.

"Lord Hokage, if I might have a word with the birthday girl?"

Minato's smile was a bit strained, because he was well aware of Sasuke's actions regarding the recent resurrection of the Uchiha clan. "If she wants to."

Naruko nodded, and Sasuke gracefully swept himself from the room and to the front porch. She felt a warning look from her father and offered a reassuring look. "Don't worry, Dad. I'm a big girl now—can do my bra, change my tampon and everything."

"O-Oh," Minato flushed, while Kushina covered her mouth with her hand, and Menma made a gagging face.

Naruko soon joined Sasuke on the porch, where they both knew they were alone. It was also not lost on Sasuke how the girl who had once been his best friend—his sister, even—was making conscious effort to not look at his eyes. Just as well, as he knew he was probably about to be lied to, and was fully intent on using his Eternal Mangekyou to get the truth.

"How have things been, Sasuke?"

"Busy. Restoring the clan, training myself so hard I had bones sticking out of skin on some days, all for the purpose of being told the person I wanted to kill most in my life had already been killed, the girl I thought of as my sister having helped do it, without so much as sending me a heads-up letter."

"Yeah, restoring the clan…"

Sasuke shrugged. "CRA operates under a volunteer service only, none of the kunoichi signed up, all focused on training to get strong enough to kill him, so that left only civilians. I hand-picked them myself after studying all the applicants for weeks. Only the strongest."

_Only the strongest._

That meant that Sasuke had stalked the single mothers, the whores, the abuse victims, the women that were bearing mountains on their shoulders, the ones that were struggling through the hellish grind and keeping their sanity. In that way, Sasuke could be looked at as a hero, delivering those women from their lives of hardship and strife. However, it was all for the purpose of breeding them to provide his progeny, not love, pity, or sympathy.

It was one of those morally questionable situations that made Naruko feel cynical, and so she put the whole thing out of her mind.

"I'm happy that your clan is coming back."

Sasuke's mouth set into a thin line, his eyes darkening. "I might've brought my clan back, but they will never be what they were. My ancestors frown on me, and my family remains destroyed. What I've done…" he shook his head. "I did what I had to, but it is still wrong."

Naruko didn't say anything, because she knew that when Sasuke said it was wrong, he wasn't referring to the fact that he basically pulled a bunch of sluts off the street into his compound and went balls deep inside of them, but he meant that it was wrong that he mixed pure Uchiha seed with women who weren't even kunoichi. He had tainted the bloodline, as he saw it, and that was why he felt his ancestors frowned on him.

At least he regretted his actions, so that was something.

Naruko knew what was coming and decided to stall for a little while longer. "How's Itachi?"

Sasuke audibly growled at the mention of his older brother. "That bastard has become the living embodiment of the ANBU. The only thing he does is kill, come back, and take missions to go kill more people. If he's ever actually here, the only thing he does is pick fights with the Jonin, the other ANBU, and anyone strong enough to make him break a sweat, all for the sake of establishing how he's the strongest in the village, but ironically enough, he hasn't fought with Kakashi, Jiraiya, or Minato."

'_Or you,' _Naruko thought, reading her spiritual brother's emotions. _'You're bitter with him because he doesn't challenge you on the belief that you're too weak for him, and he's disgusted with your engagement in the CRA.'_

She smiled cockily. "Well, now that I'm back, I'll kick his butt back in gear and make him apologize for such a butthole."

A faint ghost of a smile crossed Sasuke's face, and then it was gone.

"My eyes have grown a lot stronger since we last met. Yes, they're not as strong as when Hagoromo was backing us up, but they're strong enough today that I can see even the smallest about of chakra. _Such as the signature in your womb_." Sasuke's eyes slowly gained a dark ruby glow to them as the air changed, becoming heavy, thick, and dangerous.

"Whose child is it?"

It was funny to Naruko how Sasuke was automatically assuming the worst. There was no evidence to suggest any kind of foul play or betrayal, but he was already going down the line of thinking that she had done something heinous. She could've been raped for all Sasuke knew, but really, that was possibility was slim to absolutely zero, especially with the mighty Nine-Tails ready to be let out anytime Naruko let it.

Speaking of the Tailed-Beast, Naruko could hear him growling at the back of her mind, not taking Sasuke's hostile intent towards his beloved Jinchuuriki very kindly.

Of course, _telling _Sasuke just whose child it was would undermine absolutely everything Naruko had worked for. Admitting that Shin'en was alive, that they were lovers, to be wed in due time, and that she was pregnant with his child, would be more than enough to set Sasuke off, and he would not doubt shout this to the whole village, and Naruko wasn't sure if she had the heart to try and discredit her brother by pulling the "He's gone crazy/nuts/wacko/insane, and he doesn't know what he's talking about!" card.

Truth be told, she wasn't sure she could pull it off. Her training under the Akatsuki had nothing to do with the finer shinobi arts such as lying and non-combative deception. It was all about refining her chakra control, strengthening her connection with Kurama and Sage Mode, unlocking and managing her Inner Gates, mastering the jutsu she knew, empowering them, learning new jutsu inside and out, and building on her taijustu while also developing her kenjutsu. The darker parts of the shinobi lifestyle had been omitted from her curriculum.

Despite that, the cynical side of her that had been born under Jiraiya and then flourished and developed as she moved through the underbelly of the continent began to take over.

It was obvious that Sasuke had a wellspring of hatred ready to erupt like a volcano, and while he was an Uchiha—the clan possessing a historic inclination for explosive grudges and fury that stemmed from broken hearts—it was still extreme. Itachi was no doubt the same way, and her friends, despite this great night they had, would do a complete one-eighty at Naruko's revelation, so what was the point?

Why not just spill it and let whatever happened, happen? Percy would be here in ten seconds flat with the whole Akatsuki, ready to raze the surrounding fifty files down to the bedrock for her sake, Project Tsuki no Me would be done before the end of the week, the world would be at peace, and she and Percy would be free to go to Persephone, get married in a grand ceremony, and live the rest of their lives together with their child, then eventually their grandchildren, and maybe even their grandchildren.

And maybe every generation hence until the trumpets sounded, because they could potentially be biologically immortal, or at least made so by the gods.

But…

Naruko's sense of love and care began pushing against her cynicism. Yes, she could tell the truth and Percy would come, and that would be it. That'd be it for Sasuke, Mom, Dad, Menma and all of her friends. They'd be stuck in the infinite dream, forever stuck in the false peace, gently forced to live in a perfect, fabricated world built on their own innermost desires, completely and totally isolated from everyone else—from all the real people, from all the people they _really _loved.

In the Infinite Tsukuyomi, it would all just be a dream, just a falsehood, none of it real, all of it fake.

A false peace, an escape from actually confronting the world's problems, and fighting hard to come up with a good, strong, viable solution to it all.

Naruko appreciated the fact that she had a full argument herself, including depression, pep talk, and motivational speech all in one, in the span of less than a hundredth of a second.

She never got the chance to actually answer Sasuke, either with lie or truth, because the door burst open and the family was there, having leapt into action the moment they felt the shift in the air. Immediately, as if someone had turned a switch, Sasuke was all smiles and happiness again.

"Sorry. Naruko and I were engaging in a contest to see who could produce more Killer Intent. I just had my turn, and now it's hers."

"Oh," Kushina said. "Well, let's see it?"

'_Kurama?'_

'_**With pleasure.'**_

In canon, Naruto, using the great and nearly unbeatable power of Talk-no-Jutsu, more or less _cured _Kurama of his anger and his hatred, turning him into Kurama, the Friendly Tailed-Beast, kind of like a more vocal and personal Godzilla. Even in this little branch dimension, Naruko had, at one point, started some real good work on getting Kurama to let go of bitterness and resentment, but that had all practically went flying out the window with Naruko's fluctuating emotional state that started really getting out of wack when she started exploring the world, was exposed to the experiences, philosophies, and stories of the Akatsuki, and puberty certainly did not help.

As such, the mighty Nine-Tailed Fox, famed for its awesome, landscape-altering sneezes, still had _terrific _amounts of hatred for all things in general, especially humans.

And he had very rare opportunities to let at least just a little bit of it out.

Malice erupted from Kurama through Naruko. The birds nesting for the night went straight to the air with terrified squawks. Naruko felt ANBU approaching from afar. Sasuke actually gripped his sword, sweat breaking out across his face. Minato and Kushina both had stricken looks on their face as they remembered a night in which what they were feeling had been manifold by a factor of nine.

And then Naruko shut off the valve, so to speak.

Her hair settled back into place, the grass and trees became still, the birds probably wouldn't ever return here, and the ANBU were speeding up, thinking that whatever had happened, happened, and they needed to get to the scene pronto. The smell of urine was strong in the air to present sensitive noses, and Menma quickly excused himself.

However, the one doing the most amount of sweating wasn't the two adults, but the young man.

In that huge wave of sheer malice, loathing, fury, and the desire to kill everything around, he had detected an underlying sense of direction in there. While all of that energy had been released on a broad scale, there had been a decent amount of it aimed solely at him. Naruko's intent behind it was clear:

_My baby is mine. Their father's identity is mine to know. If you say anything, do anything, or think anything about moving against me and my baby, I will kill you._

The fact that the feeling was simply "kill" as opposed to a stronger word, like "annihilate," "obliterate," "destroy," "rip/tear you apart," "grind/shred you to dust/powder," etc., none of these but just simply _kill_—like it was going to be just like that. If Sasuke crossed Naruko regarding her very young child, she was going to kill him.

No ifs, ands, or buts.

She would come for him and kill him. Not fight an epic battle or have a deep argument or share any words or feelings. She would simply be there for him, and seemingly without much effort, she would just kill him.

Like he was a common household pest, or a rodent, or a varmint.

It would require no more energy on her part than it did for anyone to grab a shoe and crush a bug scurrying across the floor.

Considering how well she handled all the others, all of them holding nothing back, channeling years of anger, hatred, vengeance, and pain, and how she very clearly had power to spare, she just might be able to do that. At least, if he didn't use the undeniably _great_ power of his Eternal Mangekyou.

As much as he tried to acquire strength beyond the fabled eyes, it was clear that their power was at a level that few were ever going to match, even him and his brother.

"W-Well," Kushina tried to downplay how frightened she was. "That was certainly impressive, deer."

"Yep," Naruko chirped as if she hadn't just threatened her brother with death. "You learn a lot from a bunch of S-class ninja."

"Yes, that must've been an experience," Sasuke said. "You'll have to tell me more about it. Did you get a taste for coffee while away?"

"I like my coffee straight black."

Sasuke nodded. "If you're not doing anything tomorrow at nine, meet me at Takeuchi's. We can catch up in earnest."

"I'll see you there."

Sasuke nodded and took his leave. He might not've cared terribly much about his veritable harem, but those were still his children, his direct family, and the future of the clan. They did require direction and authority in their lives so that they could grow strong and accurately represent the clan, despite their tainted blood.

Naruko watched him go.

'_**Still think there's hope for the world?'**_

'_Yes.'_

'_**What I would give to be young again…'**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Unfortunately, the chance for coffee would never arrive, because a messenger from the Hidden Sand came barreling through the gates about ten minutes before the sun came up.

This particular messenger wasn't loyal to Gaara, but to the idea of the Hidden Sand. He was a patriot, as it were. As soon as Deidara's first bombs had detonated, he had hauled ass from the desert to the forest at his max pace of 300mph, having unlocked his First Gate to do so. A testament to just how big the Shinobi World was that a man having left in the middle of the day didn't get to his location till the next morning.

He brought news that the Hidden Sand had been systematically bombed by an unknown assailant/s, and based on when he had left, it was unknown to him just how many were dead, and just who encompassed those dead, but he was certain there were a lot of dead people.

Minato wasn't necessarily grumpy, part of being Hokage involved going to sleep at odd hours and then waking up at even odder hours for whatever reason. What irked him was that it was the Hidden Sand that he had to send aid to. It well and truly broke his heart that Gaara, a boy that was practically his nephew given the brotherly bond between Minato and the late Rasa, and the sibling-like bond between Gaara and Naruko, had fallen so deep into paranoia and insanity after the death of his father at the hands of _him_.

However, Minato held out a little hope that perhaps news of his death would be enough to start Gaara's recuperation.

Although, considering he had his own big sister executed, perhaps not.

"I'll go," Naruko said. Her tone indicated that it wasn't a request.

Minato was in his office, along with Kakashi, Jiraiya, the two remaining elders, his daughter, Might Guy, and Ibiki.

The Hokage didn't even question sending his daughter into dodge, having the full, utmost confidence that she would simply go anyway, and fight her way out of the village if she needed to. This was Gaara, we were talking about, and if Naruko knew about Kiba's descent, then she definitely knew about her redheaded friend.

"Copy on you going. You wouldn't happen to have any hunches on this matter, would you?"

"Deidara, probably. Sasori wouldn't be too far behind if that's the case."

Minato cocked a brow. "Why would the Akatsuki go after the Kazekage?"

"They didn't. They went after the One-Tail Jinchuuriki. We Human Sacrifices go for a lot of money on the black market, as it turns out."

And suddenly it felt like everyone had an anvil dropped into their stomachs. It was known by those present that from Naruko's intel that the Akatsuki was looking to strike it rich from bounty hunting and then live the rest of their lives being comfortable on a beach somewhere, but it was not known that the organization would be going after the Jinchuuriki.

More than just the money involved, the danger of the most powerful beings in the world falling into the hands of powerful criminals, for money or not, was a _serious _threat to the known world, and Minato found himself reconsidering letting his baby girl go off on this mission.

Then his head twitched to the side on reflex as a thought occurred to him.

"If they're gunning for the Jinchuuriki due to their high price, why didn't they take you?"

Naruko's lips quirked up into a rueful smile. "Appreciation for my help in taking down You-Know-Who. The others won't go down in any order, but they're saving me for last."

"_Why_ didn't you mention that to us when we were talking about the Akatsuki," Ibiki demanded. "_That _is rather crucial information!"

Naruko looked at him. "Yes, and what would you do with that? Send pigeons to the other villages telling them that an organization of S-rank criminals is going to be coming after their Jinchuuriki for the sake of money? Yes, very believable, especially from the Hidden Leaf, the world's leading military power. That couldn't possibly be misunderstood as a tactic to generate panic and possibly get our hands on more Tailed-Beasts."

"You still should've told us."

"You've now been informed. I shall bake you an apology cake in due time."

Ibiki scowled, a rather intimidating sight with his scars.

"Regardless," Minato said pointedly, "I'll still send messenger toads to the other Kage, just so they have the information. If this attack was indeed carried out by Deidara, then we can assume that Sasori is close by, the Hidden Sand has been destroyed, and that Gaara has been captured, but not killed. That would've released the One-Tail, which is more than a match for two S-class ninja, especially in its home court of the desert. They'll be on the move and making sure Gaara stays out. Naruko, do you know of any safehouses around the Hidden Sand?"

"The closest one is in the Land of Rivers, about twenty miles North of the Hidden Valley Village. They'll go there to inform Pain of their success and await his instructions."

Minato nodded.

"With the Hidden Sand destroyed, we'll need to send Medic Ninja. Contact Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno. Tell them to round up three squads of their best underlings and leave for the Hidden Sand as soon as they're equipped. Kakashi, you will be taking Naruko Namikaze, Sasuke Uchiha, and Shikamaru Nara to where the Akatsuki hideout is located. Guy, you'll be taking Rock Lee, Tenten, and Hinata Hyūga to the Hidden Sand and sweep the area. After you're sure it's locked down, you'll rendezvous with Team Kakashi, bringing with you Ino and Sakura."

Minato was a bit more focused on the Akatsuki, if you hadn't noticed. The Hidden Sand had become more or less a backwater military outpost under Gaara's tenure, but perhaps this was an opportunity to get the village back in order after everything was settled.

"I would like to volunteer as an advance unit," Jiraiya said. "I can find this place and scout around. Might even be able to intercept the Akatsuki."

"Granted."

"You will have your perverted ass handed to you on a _golden_ platter," Naruko casually said. "These guys were S-class already, but then they trained for a year to kill the most powerful person on the planet—and succeeded. That's why Deidara was able to blow apart the front gates, the village itself, _and _make it out of there with someone as powerful as Gaara. Deidara _and _Sasori will make mincemeat out of you, and God forbid any of the other actually be present at the hideout."

"I shall be super careful."

Naruko deadpanned at him.

"I will be even more careful than if I was peeking in on Tsunade."

Guy whistled, and even Minato visibly reacted to that statement.

"Assuming you actually put forth that kind of effort, I shall certainly allow this operation."

"If I put forth this kind of effort into my job, just imagine the frightening headway I'd make."

"Your job being a shinobi, or writing porn?" Naruko asked.

"BOTH!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Land of Rivers_

_October 12, 1017 AS_

The boulder blocking the entrance to the cave opened with a grand amount of sound, and the Artists made their way inside, walking on the water as if it were solid ground. There were no other lifeforms in this cave, sans the germs that had just entered with the boulder opening.

There was a little altar just outside the water's reach, the candle therein flickering slightly.

Before the altar was a rainbow hologram and spikey-haired man bearing purple, ringed eyes.

"_Were you followed?"_

"Yes, but Sasori took care of it, hm."

"_And the body?"_

"Claimed by the desert," Sasori answered.

Pain pressed no further in that line of questioning, and instead ran through his Hand Seals, finishing the sequence by slamming his palm onto the ground with a shout. There was an explosion of smoke at the back of a cave, and a massive, disturbing statue began to rise from the earth, coming to a stop just below the cave's cavernous ceiling.

"_Assemble."_

The stature had a pair of adjacent hands to it, the palms and fingers all splayed upward. At the distorted intonement, Sasori and Deidara leapt onto fingers corresponding to their rings, with their leader's image flickering out and then reappearing on the right thumb. In addition to the leader, seven other holograms appeared to occupy the remaining fingers.

Gaara's cracked and unconscious body was left on the cold ground between the statue and its hands.

"_This will take twelve hours," _Pain declared. _"Prepare yourselves_._"_

The Rinnegan-bearer made the Ram Seal, and the fingernail he stood on glowed bright green, the kanji for "zero" being black upon the light. Across the hands, all the fingers glowed the same color, but the kanji on them varied.

When all the fingers glowed, signifying that chakra was running through them and into the statue, Pain started the jutsu.

"_Sealing Jutsu: Ten Phantom Dragons__!"_

A bubbling mass of blue chakra was the statue's open maw, and from it, ten large tendrils slinked forth, the heads taking the form of dragons. The dragons soared and waved through the air, and all of them found their way to the Kazekage. Gaara was engulfed in the chakra, finding himself suspended in a sphere of energy with a channel open right to the statue.

His eyes and mouth were pried open, and red chakra began to rapidly leak from his body.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twelve hours and eighteen minutes later, Gaara's corpse dropped to the ground with an unceremonious thud.

Kakuzu made an undignified squawking sound. _"Why didn't either of you catch the body!? Now it could possibly be damaged, and we won't get full price for it!"_

"_Tch, you and your damn money," _Hidan spat. _"With what we're doing, you're well on your way to having all the money you could ever want."_

Due to the jutsu, you couldn't see Kakuzu's face, but his eyes conveyed enough emotion. His voice, too. _"But until that time, all the cash we can get our hands on is valuable beyond measure!"_

"_Whatever you say," _Hidan waved dismissively.

"_You never know what could happen between now and next week, so we need to make sure we're stocked up on money so all of our bases are covered!"_

"_Gentlemen," _Pain's voice cut through the argument. _"If you are finished: Shin'en, report."_

"_Minato has sent several teams of shinobi to the Hidden Sand. Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno lead thirty medic nin to handle the wounded. They are accompanied by Might Guy, Rock Lee, Tenten, and Hinata Hy__ū__ga. A separate team lead by Kakashi Hatake is making rapid haste here, with Naruko Namikaze, Sasuke Uchiha, and Shikamaru Nara in accompaniment. Jiraiya of the Sannin is almost at our gate, serving as an advance scout."_

"_Understood. Sasori, engage the Sannin but do not kill him. Deidara, prepare as needed. I want you two to fight—and not __kill__— the Leaf ninja so that we have a gauge on what we're up against nowadays. Shin'en, Kisame, be ready to provide support when needed. The rest of you continue with your assignments. The four I named, report after you're done here. Dismissed."_

All of the holograms vanished and the stature poofed away, Deidara and Sasori dropping to the ground. They wasted no time, not even giving Gaara's body a second glance as they went about doing their things. Deidara rigged the whole place to blow, planting explosives in key locations, while Sasori casually left the cave, the boulder entrance rising at his approach.

Right outside the door was the world-famous super pervert, a deer-in-headlights expression on his face as he watched the boulder go rising into the air. When it settled behind Sasori, the two stared at each other, one of them very awkwardly, the other blankly.

"So…how are you today?"

"I'm very well, thank you. And you?"

"Oh, you know, same old, same old. Got called into the office on my day off because one of the five major world powers was virtually destroyed by an acquaintance of my goddaughter, and one of the five Kage was also kidnapped by that acquaintance."

"Ah, I see Naruko told you about us and our operations."

"Yep. Kidnapping and selling the Jinchuuriki to get rich quick and retire early. Sweet, simple, and highly dangerous. Add in a bit of betrayal somewhere along the way and an out-of-place romance, and I'd say you have the beginnings of a beautiful novel."

"I'll keep such a plot in mind, Jiraiya."

"A darn shame you'll never get to write it out, Sasori."

"Because you'll copywrite it first?"

"No, it's because I'm going to kill you."

The water erupted around Sasori as a humongous toad tried to swallow him whole. It didn't work, of course, and to Jiraiya's eyes, as he processed the proceedings in slow motion, Sasori merely vanished from sight, but the Sannin had been around long enough to recognize a speed jutsu, and he had seen none.

And then he gurgled and flinched when a blade went through his body, going through the heart.

Sasori himself was very unimpressed…when Jiraiya's body collapsed and turned into a pile of mud. The summoned toad poofed away back to Mt. Myoboku, and the puppet master, once again vanished from sight when the real Toad Sage came crashing down from the heavens, splitting apart the ground and sending tremors throughout the land.

Emerging from the dust cloud and crater, Sasori noted the differences between the real Sannin and the Mud Clone he had just dispatched. The man's hair was wilder and spikier, his black eyes had turned to horizontal bars against his white iris, and the red markings trailing from his eyes had grown cover nearly all of his face, leaving only his nose and mouth free of red.

"This must be Sage Mode."

"It is. I used to be unable to handle the chakra balance within me and needed help, but I've since perfected it."

"Our battle has only just begun and you're already getting this serious?"

"Naruko's told some detailed stories about the Akatsuki's powers, yours included. You've integrated the kekkai genkai of the Third and Fourth Kazekage into your puppet body, and now I get that technique of yours. You have little particles of Iron Sand in the air around us, and you've perfected the Substitution Jutsu with them."

"If that were the case, then I would've already filled your body with those particles and destroyed your internal organs. You'll have to guess again."

No, Jiraiya had hit the nail on the head about Sasori's jutsu, but the puppet master was under orders _not_ to kill the Sannin, not really from Pain, but from Shin'en. Jiraiya was, after all, a beloved figure in his fiancé's life, and he already hated seeing her put forth so much effort into turning her old friends around, an effort that would end in vain and in heartbreak, he did not want to see any premature tears.

To that end, Sasori was lying to Jiraiya about the Iron Sand in the air, so that he wouldn't get suspicious about why Sasori hadn't just outright filled his body with metal, and wonder why he was being left alive.

Granted, Jiraiya probably saw right through the lie, but he would still be in the dark about Sasori's motives.

"No, I think my guess is right. I'll even go so far out to guess that you're under orders to keep me alive, or you're afraid of what Shin'en will do to you if you hurt me, the godfather of his baby momma who still has the audacity to say she loves after what she's done."

Oh.

Well then…

"When you put it that way, it makes me feel bad for letting you live as opposed to just putt you out of your misery."

Jiraiya let a thin layer of chakra cover his body, hoping that it would be enough to keep any Iron Sand or Gold Dust from getting inside of him. He hoped there wasn't already particles inside of him, because based on Naruko's intel, it just took one single grain for Sasori to wreak havoc on your insides.

Hidan's immortality made for wonderful experimentation, apparently.

However, none of that was as important as what Jiraiya had discovered. Naruko's love for Shin'en went both ways, which was rather touching in a way, some real, genuine love in this hateful world, but that was also some good leverage. If Sasori wasn't allowed to kill Jiraiya based on Naruko's feelings and Shin'en's consideration for them, then that was advantages all over.

The Akatsuki would have to pull their punches, a courtesy no Leaf shinobi would be reciprocating.

Of course, Jiraiya was still on the fence about what to do about his goddaughter.

He had no such qualms about this fake lifeform before him, though.

Jiraiya shot forward, and Sasori took him head on. They engaged in taijustu, and the Sannin quickly came to realize that the ninja before him was perhaps more versed in the Hidden Sand's magnetic bloodline than its most famous practitioners. Sasori was using the Iron Sand along the black fabric of his cloak, highly effective camouflage, and was probably running it along the inside of the sleeve, and about his puppet body. It was the best explanation Jiraiya could come up with as to why his skinny opponent was taking punches and kicks that had enough force behind them to out-muscle Tsunade.

Yet another advantage of turning himself into the perfect work of art: he was impervious to pain.

Sasori matched Jiraiya blow for blow, having spent so many months perfecting his taijustu style against juggernauts like Shin'en, Naruko, and Kakuzu, and he was taking detailed mental notes of the Sannin's technique. This was a test, after all, to see how the Akatsuki really measured up against the best of the best, even after all of the extensive training everyone had gone through in the wake of Shin'en's attack on the Leaf four years ago.

Right now, Sasori was of the firm opinion that the organization was going to be just fine.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Less than ten minutes after the puppet master engaged the Sannin, Kakashi, Naruko, Sasuke, and Shikamaru arrived, and more or less just in time, because Jiraiya's Sage Mode had just about run dry. Sasori, by comparison, was no more worse for wear than when the battle had begun, his puppet body by no means subject to the likes of fatigue and exhaustion.

"Hey, Sasori."

"Naruko. I see you brought your friends. Are they well?"

"They're better than when they were last week, at least."

"I see."

"Sasori of the Red Sands," Kakashi said, stepping into the spotlight, filing this little interaction away at the back of his mind to be recalled and reviewed later. "You are under arrest for war crimes committed during the Second Great Ninja War, being away without leave, accessory to an as-of-yet undetermined count of murder, and kidnapping of an important public figure. Surrender now and come peacefully."

"No u, L-O-L."

Only Naruko knew what that meant, and she both snorted, and grabbed the dodged out of the way of the bomb that Deidara unceremoniously dropped in the middle of her little group. The boys weren't stupid, thankfully, and when they saw Naruko move, they also scattered. Just as well, because suddenly there was explosion where they all stood, the heat of which they felt on their backs, the force of which rattled their bones.

Other than suddenly sweating and feeling some aches, there was no injury to the Leaf shinobi.

Deidara came to stand beside his partner who hadn't moved an inch in the wake of the bomb. The Leaf shinobi reassembled, and the bomber smirked.

"Let's see…you're Pervy Sage…you're Pervy Sensei…you're Pineapple Head…and you're _Sausage_."

Sasuke stared blankly at Deidara for a while, before he slowly turned his head towards Naruko, whose face was aflush as she refused to meet the Uchiha's stare. Closing his eyes, Sasuke took a deep breath to calm himself so that he wouldn't get terribly worked up over the enemy referring to him by the childhood moniker Naruko had given him when they were learning how to talk, with her being unable to pronounce "Sasuke" correctly, so she just went with "Sausage."

"Sasori-my-man, what are you thinking?"

"Bruise but don't kill. Our only aim is the Jinchuuriki."

"Will we be gunning after the one before us, then?"

"No. She'll be the last one, as thanks for her efforts in killing Shin'en Yūrei."

"So, he is dead, then?" Shikamaru asked.

Deidara smirked, his visible gleaming. "As a doornail."

"You said you're only aim is the Jinchuuriki," the Nara continued, stalling for time so his comrades could move the pieces into place, "planning to sell them to the highest bidder on the black market, but you're not after us. Jiraiya is an S-class ninja with a high bounty, and so is Kakashi. Sasuke and I are both Leaf shinobi, so that's something from the Stone, and we're both the heads of our respective clans, with decent rewards for our own heads. Seems like you're missing out on some extra money."

"True," Sasori said plainly, him and Deidara both seeing through Shikamaru, making their own preparations. "However, you're all a waste of energy compared to the price, especially when compared to Jinchuuriki."

"Then why bother fighting us at all? Why not just leave with Gaara and be on your merry way?"

"Truth be told, we only arrived about twelve hours ago and were in the middle of resting up a bit when Jiraiya rudely knocked on our door."

"So sorry to interrupt your cuddle time, boys," the pervert smirked.

What was not lost on Kakashi, Shikamaru, or Sasuke was how Naruko's jaw clenched at the mention of "twelve hours." Immediately, all of them concluded that, in addition to the information she had withheld previously regarding the Akatsuki's plan of striking it rich by way of the Jinchuuriki, she had withheld something else.

Sasuke was already suspicious of his technical sibling—difficult to decide if she was his sister or his brother by way of reincarnation—with her being pregnant with an unknown father, being naturally protective of her developing child and fiercely protective of the father's identity, so much that she had threatened him with death just last night, and the micro-reaction he just saw all but confirmed that Naruko wasn't just hiding _some_thing…she was hiding something big, something world-shaking.

Over the years, training, siring children, taking part in all kinds of missions, Sasuke had grown a sense of paranoia. It wasn't unfounded, as it had saved his life at the brothel he infiltrated, and again on an espionage mission when one of his teammates betrayed them all. Not to mention all those kids running around his compound, all of them in various stages of potty training, ranging from newborn to an odd nighttime dribble, meaning there was no telling where a mess was going to pop up next.

Right now, that paranoia of his was driving Sasuke to the worst conclusions.

Like how Itachi could be the father, or that Naruko had given up crucial information to the enemy, willingly, and then willingly slept with any of the men. There were other scenarios, with those two listed being at the bottom of the list. At the top was the wildest, most insane possibility that Sasuke's sound (read: addled) mind could come up with:

_He _was the father, and it was totally consensual.

In fact, the more Sasuke thought about it, the more it made sense as he recalled the Chunin Exam. He remembered how Naruko had never actually aimed to kill _him_—she had been all about saving him and redeeming him, fulfilling a promise she made to his twin sister. He even remembered arguing with Naruko about whether they should be aiming to kill him or not, and he was lividly opposed when she wanted to just neutralize the demigod.

More than that, Naruko hadn't actually lost anything during the Exam. Her mother and father were still alive, as was her little brother. Her house hadn't taken a lick of damage, either. Not a crack in a window, not even a broken vase from any of the impact tremors. Then, right after everything was over and that big storm created from _his _battle with the Third Raikage blew over, Naruko had gone comatose from the backlash experienced by her newfound empathy, and when she woke up, she had immediately decided to leave the village with Jiraiya, meaning she skipped out on all the fun activities.

Repairing all the structures, the funerals, digging through the rubble to find survivors, only to find little kids that had suffocated, or had been cleaved or crushed. Naruko didn't see the tears, and while she certainly felt the sadness and the despair, the hatred and the anger, the malice and the loathing, she didn't stick around to soak it up.

As such, Naruko was more or less completely devoid of any hatred for _him_, and as far as Sasuke knew, during her time away, she had still been aiming to deliver on her lifetime promise to Persephone to "save" _him_.

Sasuke's mind went hurtling down the rabbit hole as he forced things together based on hunches, intuition, and gut feelings.

_He _had disappeared for so long but had never been found.

An organization of S-class missing ninja had been walking around, training and collecting on bounties without anyone knowing.

This same organization was happened upon by Naruko at the convenient location of the map's edge.

She said they trained together to for a year to gain enough power to fight and kill _him_, but what if they didn't?

What if _he _was a part of that organization, that Naruko was a liar, and in her misguided attempt to fulfill her promise, she had become corrupted…or something a whole lot worse.

That she actually fell in _love_ with _him_, willingly spread her legs, and was now carrying his progeny, not only having lied about her and the Akatsuki having killed _him_, but lying about the Akatsuki altogether.

It was so farfetched, so out there in left field, that it _had _to be true.

That empathy of Naruko's kicked in, and Sasuke could see on her face, not even having to use the Sharingan, that she was practically reading her mind, and the solemn look that briefly appeared in her cobalt blue eyes all but confirmed Sasuke's insane theory.

And then he lost his shit.

"_TRAITOR~!"_

Heads whipped around as Sasuke grabbed Naruko by the throat, closing the distance in the blink of an eye, and in the next second, had her pinned to the mountainside, sword ready to slide through her ribcage and into her heart.

What made this situation morbidly humorous was that the last spoken words had come from Jiraiya's mouth in the form of a jab against Deidara and Sasori, insinuating they were a couple of fags, and then Sasuke is suddenly screaming and assaulting Naruko.

"Sasuke!" Kakashi roared. "Stand down!"

"_NO!_ She's a lying traitor! She's _pregnant_, and I know who the father is! It's-!"

"Shin'en Yūrei."

All eyes were suddenly on Jiraiya, grim-faced, voice hard, eyes cold. He wasn't lying.

"She told me herself, and out of love for her, I sat on it. I also sat on the fact that she's not only pregnant with Shin'en's kid, she's engaged to him. She even showed me the ring."

As Sasuke seethed, Naruko simply stared stoically into his fiery eyes. The whole battlefield had gone still, Kakashi and Shikamaru shocked and stunned, but not totally surprised as they two had picked up on things that weren't adding up, but never would they have predicted this. Steadily, they felt fury beginning to rise in them as the full gravity of things settled on their shoulders.

As for the Akatsuki Artists, they were both incredibly tense and ignorant as to what the appropriate course of action was. Naruko being pregnant was news to them, and it certainly upped the ante a hundred-fold, but they did know about the engagement. However, what they were really focused on was the deal that had been made between Naruko and Shin'en, and the fact that it seemed to be collapsing in the wake of this very unexpected revelation.

They didn't have to worry about things for long, because a very unamused voice entered their minds through their rings.

'_Retreat and prepare to destroy the Leaf once and for all.'_

That was all they needed.

Deidara made a large, raptor-like clay bird, and he and Sasori departed on it in tremendous haste before they could be stopped, leaving the Leaf ninja to themselves in what was probably one of the most awkward, serious, and tense situations in history.

For her part, Naruko could've easily destroyed everyone here, with only Sasuke _maybe _giving her a hard time with his Eternal Mangekyou. Other than that, she had already demonstrated she could take so many at once and come out mostly unscathed, with power to spare. More specifically, she could go into her Seventh-Gate-Tailed-Beast-Sage-Mode at the drop of a hat, thought it would leave her incredibly sore and in pain after she cut off the power.

The Inner Gates part is what hurt, going into Tailed-Beast Sage Mode was easy, and would've been more than enough to take out Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Shikamaru. Considering what was coming in the wake of her apparent failure, it probably would've been the merciful thing, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Naruko firmly believed there was still a chance.

She had one more card to play.

"I surrender," she said.

And that was that.

Sasuke backed off and Jiraiya was there with an assortment of Sealing Tags. Restriction Seals, Paralysis Seals, Binding Seals—all manner of Seals designed to basically render any shinobi, Kage, Jinchuuriki, or otherwise, as barely more than a vegetable. Even Naruko, despite all of her incredible power, was subject to _this_ many powerful Seals. The fact that Jiraiya simply had them on his person told her that he had been expecting a moment like this to happen.

Shikamaru did a quick check of the cave after the barrier was broken by the Sannin, he and found Gaara's lifeless body. The Nara sealed it up into a scroll and the Leaf shinobi departed for the Hidden Sand to regroup with their comrades there, Kakashi carrying Naruko over his shoulder, her ass next to his face.

However, in these trying times, the renowned pervert had no perverted thoughts about a beautiful young ass, nor was he worried about her farting. All of those Seals on her even put restrictions on her digestive system, so the odds of there being any gas, much less any solids, weren't just slim, but purely none. To really put it into perspective about how potent all of these Seals were, Naruko wouldn't be able to wipe the drool from her face without help.

It took less than six hours for the Leaf ninja to make it the Sand. Jiraiya gathered Team Guy and Tsunade's two apprentices, and he explained to them their encounter with the Akatsuki, how Sasori was able to match him blow for blow, even while in Sage Mode, and how Sasuke uncovered the devastating facts of Naruko's betrayal, facts she herself confirmed with her confession.

There was shock and horror, then revulsion, and it all quickly culminated into hurt-filled anger revolving around Naruko's lies, and the fact that she had lied in the first place, and about something so crucial and integral to all of their lives.

As Jiraiya was by far the most senior authority on this mission, that made him the leader, even though there were two distinct teams with two very distinct leaders. With his authority as senior, Jiraiya ordered that everyone made elemental clones of themselves, along with Shadow Clones as a quick message system should things go horribly sour, to leave as sentinels and to fulfill their original mandate of serving as protection until Minato organized a formal garrison.

With the protections in place, the Leaf shinobi departed for home, Jiraiya placing Naruko's court martial above all else.

Arrival was visibly solemn and simultaneously furious, and the Sannin handed Naruko off to the ANBU as soon as they arrived. Jiraiya dismissed his underlings, telling them he would shoulder the burden of informing the Hokage in person, while everyone else was to file written reports of their rather brief experiences on the mission. No one argued on account of no one wanting to be there when Minato learned the hard truth.

Half an hour later, after Jiraiya finished his verbal report of everything, keeping to himself the fact that Minato was in line to be a grandfather, the great Yellow Flash was left sitting in his chair, eyes blank and mouth slightly agape. The ANBU hidden throughout the office were also so stunned that their disguises and camouflage had fallen, leaving them all visible where they stood.

A sound quietly left Minato's mouth, so soft that all of these people with clinically defined super-hearing didn't quite make it out. When no one moved, Minato said it a little louder.

"_Out_."

Even Jiraiya left the office at the short command.

Silence reigned, thick and heavy in Minato's lonesome. Slowly, his eyes traveled to a framed picture on his desk, and he reached for it, brining it closer to his face. At the time this photo had been taken, just a little over fourteen years ago, Minato had found it rather silly and embarrassing. As the years wore on and he watched his daughter grow, this phot had become a priceless treasure.

The photo itself depicted Kushina and a little toddler Naruko, both of them with smiles so wide that their eyes were forced shut. The little blonde was proudly displaying her first package of big girl undies, and through expert maneuvering, Kushina had gotten the trashcan into the shot. Down at the bottom of the can was a mostly full package of pull-ups.

The photo had been taken to commemorate the completing of Naruko's potty training, having gone seven straight days and nights with no accidents and all the other little things. She could differentiate between needing to go tinkle and needing to go poo-poo. She could pull her pants and underwear down. She could sit on the potty. She could tell when she was finished. She could wipe herself clean with minimal help. She could flush. She could wash her hands with soap and water. And she could do all of these things during the night, having successfully worked her body to wake up when she needed to go.

At the time, this had been Naruko's crowning achievement, because this was her first victory over Sasuke, who had unfortunately wet the bed the night before, thereby resetting the time frame as dictated by the rules of the Potty Game, the tactic that the clan parents were using to potty train all of their kids.

It had been an exercise to foster friendship and competition between the kids.

Now that he reflected on it a bit more, Minato realized that he and his old friends, most of them deceased, had been some motherfuckers. They had manipulated their own children and carefully planned every step of their development and childhood to ensure that they would all grow up to be best friends, that their bond would be strong and they'd be able to successfully carry the Hidden Leaf into a new era of prosperity.

Well, that had all gone to hell in a handbasket, obviously.

Perhaps this was the gods punishing them for their transgressions. Perhaps Shin'en was meant to be a divine instrument of retribution and judgement. Perhaps Minato really had no say in anything that happened in the world. Maybe the world had already ended. Maybe Shin'en had already wiped them all out, and the world Minato was now stuck in was his own personal Hell, and he was damned to relive his cursed life until his soul was finally destroyed, or mercy was showered upon him and he got a second chance at life through reincarnation.

He didn't know.

He was afraid of the answers.

What he did know was that his beloved wife was not going to be able to handle this development. What he did know was that the beautiful little girl in this photograph, so proud and radiant in the fact that she could now go shit and piss in the toilet like nearly 80% of all people on the planet instead of in her pants, was a traitor and was to be dealt with as such.

Minato drew in a shuddering breath, and released it with just as much shaking. He drew in another, this one steadier, and on the third breath, his breathing was even. His mind was focused and clear. His eyes were hard and determined. He opened a drawer in his desk and gently set the picture inside, face down.

"ANBU!"

The ones that he had ordered to leave all reappeared before his desk, kneeling and with heads bowed before he barely finished to first syllable.

"Inform all necessary personnel that I am calling an immediate, emergency military tribunal."

"Sir!"

They vanished, and then Minato called in his sensei. With a level voice and a heavy heart, he dolled out his next order.

"Make sure Kushina and Menma are kept at home. I…_ahem_…I don't want them to know about this."

His voice broke there, and he had to clear his throat.

Jiraiya nodded stiffly and departed. Before he had even gotten to the Hokage Tower to inform his beloved student of the proceedings, he had created Shadow Clones and sent them to Kakashi, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Guy, Lee, Tenten, Hinata, Sakura and Ino, telling to keep their mouths shut regarding the pregnancy on the grounds that Minato, Kushina and Menma were going to be devastated enough as it was, and that Naruko was more or less guaranteed to be executed already, so there was no need to add more gravity to the situation.

Now, as he made way for the Namikaze house, the Clones dispelled, and it was bit an iota of relief that he had received cooperation from the conspirators.

At least, in verbiage.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As this was a military tribunal, there was no need to bring in the civilian side of things, for they had no jurisdiction in shinobi matters. They could bellyache all they wanted, but no member of the Hidden Leaf shinobi force was going to care.

Gathered in the chamber was Minato, in full Hokage regalia, along with Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado, the last remaining elders, and Tsunade and Jiraiya, the highest ranking shinobi. Kakashi was present, being the Jonin Commander, along with all the clan heads of the current generation: Sasuke Uchiha (as Itachi had not only forfeited the position but was also on a mission), Hinata Hyūga, Shino Aburame, Shikamaru Nara, Choji Akimichi, Ino Yamanaka, and Tsume Inuzuka, due to the fact that Kiba was far too mentally impaired to do anything besides grunt, growl, attack anything that moved, eat anything that was given to him, and soil the floor of his padded room.

There were other clans that had seats, like the Hatake clan, the Senju clan, the Uzumaki clan, and the Sarutobi clan, just to name a few, but the first two were only down to but one member each, the third had scattered across the globe, and the one actual member here in the Leaf was enjoying blissful, ignorant sleep along with her son, and the only member left of the final clan was far too young to occupy his seat.

While the prevailing sentiment in the Shinobi World was that you became an adult upon receiving your headband, and that was true in most case as having your headband would grant you access to brothels, bars, and all places of traditional adult entertainment, along with allowing you to buy tobacco, alcohol and drugs, but there were some actual laws regarding ones physical age, though the Kage was more than allowed to permit an underage shinobi to occupy their seat.

Minato was not about to let Konohamaru on his council.

His son was sucking on the boy's dick.

"I will not waste time on formalities. Most of you are already in the know but for those that aren't, it has been confessed and deemed to be truthful and of sound mind that Genin Naruko Namikaze is guilty of treason, sedition, deception, conspiracy, and consorting with the enemy. More specifically, it has been confirmed that her testimony regarding her time away without leave, while truthful in most cases, was fabricated in other, more important areas.

"The Akatsuki's goal regarding the acquisition of funds is true, but the means was not revealed until earlier. Their plan to acquire funds revolves around the capture and illegal sale of the Jinchuuriki on the black market. They have already succeeded in part, with the attack on the Hidden Sand being an Akatsuki operation to seize Gaara of the Sand, the One-Tail Jinchuuriki. The operation was successful, and Gaara is now deceased, with the One-Tailed Beast being in the Akatsuki's possession.

"However, the most serious crime committed was the fabricated story of the demise of Shin'en Yūrei. As it happens, he still lives and is an active member of the Akatsuki, having been training with organization and Genin Namikaze for the past year. He is partnered with Kisame Hoshigaki, with their respective Jinchuuriki targets being the Eight and Nine-Tailed Beasts. Their current whereabouts are unknown, but I have sent messages to all the Kage letting them know of this threat."

"If his target is the Nine-Tails," Koharu asked, just as stunned and flabbergasted as everyone else who was just now hearing about these things, "why did he let Genin Namikaze go? Does he intend to treat this as some sick game?"

Minato had to breathe so his nerves would remain calm as he these next few words left his mouth.

"Shin'en Yūrei allowed Genin Namikaze to return to the Leaf…because they are engaged to each other. They intend to marry."

Sasuke very nearly revealed the other crime, the one that Naruko was carrying in her womb, but he held his tongue, just like everyone else that had spoken with Jiraiya. Out of respect and courtesy of course, for they did respect Minato as their Hokage, and as their uncle, in a sense. That, and Jiraiya could be quite scary when he wanted to be, despite his world-wide reputation of being a "super pervert."

Shino was the first one to speak, and when he did, his voice was cold and level, but those that knew him well enough, particularly Hinata, could detect the underlying emotion in his voice.

"Then we are gathered to determine her sentence."

"We are here to vote on her execution."

Tsunade gasped. "Minato-!"

His blue eyes shot to her, fierce and fiery.

The Slug Sannin recomposed herself. "Lord Hokage," she amended, calm but panicking, "isn't…e-execution…a bit…extreme…she is…Genin Namikaze is…she's your…"

"I am aware of my blood ties to the Genin, and they are irrelevant. She is a shinobi of the Leaf and I am the Hokage. As such, it is my duty and responsibility to make sure that the law is carried out, and the law dictates that the lives of shinobi committing to the offences described by me are in the hands of a majority vote."

"The law also states that the accused is to be brought before the tribunal to explain themselves," Koharu said flatly, taking no one side or the other, merely doing her own duty as an elder of the village.

"Indeed."

Minato was gone and back in a flash of yellow light, and standing in between the curves of the raised U-shaped tribunal table, so that everyone was looking down on her, was Naruko, bound in dozens of lines of Sealing jutsu.

"Genin Namikaze," Minato intoned. "You stand before this military tribunal accused of treason, sedition, deception, conspiracy, and consorting with the enemy. It is the belief of this tribunal that you are guilty of all charges. Your plea?"

"Guilty to all."

Minato inhaled and exhaled, then spoke. "In matters like this, the accused is allowed to explain themselves, and then it is in the power of the tribunal to decide execution or clemency, in which further actions will be taken. Genin Namikaze, you have the floor."

And for the next hour, Naruko spoke. She told Shin'en's story as described by him and as seen in their shared visions, how he was kidnapped from his mother and sister's side as a newborn, brought to the Land of Water where he was raised in the orphanage will of his adopted siblings, and how Ameyuri Ringo, on order of Yagura, destroyed the orphanage and killed everyone inside.

Naruko told everyone of Shin'en's subsequent rampage and induction into the Hidden Cloud, where he steadily became family with the Two and Eight-Tails Jinchuuriki, the Raikage and his son, Ay and Ei, and the elite Jonin of the village, Darui and Cee. Naruko spoke of Shin'en's fractured psyche and disturbed state as he entered the shinobi academy and eventually ended of murdering his whole class during a training exercise.

She recalled the Blood War, the heinous and holy things that Shin'en and the others of Yūrei, Sukina, Yūwaku, Arashi, and Bullock had in the name of the Rebellion, in the name of overthrowing Yagura and ending his twisted regime. Naruko told them all about the trauma Shin'en went through, the anguish, the questions, the identity crises, the split personalities he had developed, and she ended this part of the long tale by describing in depth everything Shin'en had felt when he finally faced off against Yagura after the Third Raikage activated the mind control Seal that had been built into the Black Lightning Tattoo, causing Shin'en to unwittingly betray his newfound family which resulted in their deaths.

Their heads on pikes in the Hidden Mist's main square, Yagura giving his speech, the plan that Yūrei had made to leave the world behind for parts unknown after the war, and to never return, Shin'en burning down their hideout, destroying all the pictures, the memorabilia, and his return to the mainland, broken and stunted.

Instead of getting the therapy and counseling he desperately needed, he was instead thrust right back into a military operation that resulted in his infamous bout of insanity.

From there Naruko described her own part in all of this. Her promise to Shin'en's big twin sister, Persephone, to save him from himself, and the challenge Shin'en had levied against her towards the end of the Chunin Exam debacle, the challenge to determine how she would change the world from its corrupted, hate-filled state. She confessed how she felt that she learned all she was going to from Jiraiya, especially after she had a confrontation with Shin'en outside of Gumi in the Land of Hot Water back in November of 1013 when she was still operating under her Bingo Book moniker of Fox.

Naruko further confessed how she had started having feelings for Shin'en when she first saw him before the Chunin Exam officially began, and those feelings only grew during her time with the Akatsuki after she found them, and how those feelings eventually culminated into passionate nights and a vow to be married. Moving on, Naruko got to the real important part of it all.

She had to first remind everyone about the legend of the Sage of Six Paths, a legend she and Sasuke knew firsthand to be true as it was the Sage that had granted them the power needed to fight evenly against Shin'en four years ago. She had to tell everyone about the first Tailed-Beast, the mighty and destructive Ten-Tails, and how the Sage had defeated the monster after three days of hard struggle, eventually sealing the chakra of the beast within himself, and banishing the lifeless husk that was its body into a celestial tomb of rock better known as the Moon.

After that, Naruko revealed how the leader of the Akatsuki, Pain, had been born with the Rinnegan, and how he had used the awesome power of the Samsara Eye to not only lay waste to Hanzo the Salamander and claim the Land of Rain for himself and his organization, but how he had used his incredible power to summon the Ten-Tails' body back to Earth as the imposing Gedo Statue. Naruko described Project Tsuki no Me, how Madara Uchiha was alive and leading the Akatsuki under the guise of the misfit Tobi, and the most important part:

The wager.

Naruko explained what part her return was to play in all of this, how her mission was to prove that the hearts and minds of the vengeful and hateful could be turned by using understanding and love. If she could prove this possibility, using her friends before, curing them of their emotions towards Shin'en, then the Akatsuki would call off Project Tsuki no Me and instead endeavor to aid in Naruko's project.

She finished with her most heartfelt plea, _begging_ everyone to see and understand what had happened, why it had happened, what was going to happen, why it was going to happen, and how the only way to prevent this thing from happening was to _forgive_.

_That _was the key to breaking the fabled Cycle of Hatred: _forgiveness_.

When Naruko was finally finished, she felt her heart break.

Her father stared at her with the same lifeless eyes that Sasori had, perhaps even more so.

"Those in favor of execution…"

_Every hand rose_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_October 15, 1017 AS_

_Hidden Leaf_

Minato was dressed in pure white, ceremonial robes, and everyone in the village, sans Kushina and Menma and everyone else that couldn't attend for medical reasons or exigent circumstances, would also be wearing similar robes to this momentous occasion.

Naruko had been offered seppuku, to at least redeem herself in her final moments, and she had accepted.

Why this was going to be a public thing, Minato didn't know himself, he just felt that this being public was the right thing to do. Maybe it was subconscious telling him that everyone needed to see his traitorous spawn still possessed a sense of honor and duty, and was willing to take her own life instead of passing the act on to someone else. Minato couldn't say for certain, but if he was more attune with the Yin Nine-Tails inside of him, or at least looked in a mirror, he might've seen the faint red haze and the commas over his eyes.

A little while later, and Minato was standing atop the Hokage tower delivering a monotone speech about the recent happenings, the Akatsuki, Shin'en being alive, and Naruko being a traitor. There were cameras up here, filming Minato and his kneeling daughter, dressed in white, a tanto before her, the footage being displayed on jumbotrons so that everyone could see. Via speakers, Minato's voice was heard without him having to put much effort into it.

He didn't have much effort to give.

He felt so hollow and empty.

He felt like he was seconds away from breaking down into hysterical sobs, begging forgiveness from his Hokage predecessors, his own ancestors, the Uzumaki clan, and every benevolent deity that may have been up there. Minato felt ashamed, filthy, and like a failure. A failure as a husband, and more importantly, as a father.

But the whole village was his family, and he had a solemn duty to the village as the Hokage. It was a burden shouldered by Hashirama Senju, Tobirama Senju, and Hiruzen Sarutobi. They had carried out similar executions in their lifetimes, though not with members of their own families. If they could maintain the Will of Fire, even after going through such hard times, then Minato could as well.

Yes, that was it, the Will of Fire. He was holding true to the Will of Fire.

…

Well, not really, but with how rapidly his psyche was decaying as his consciousness and subconsciousness duked it out in a battle of cognitive dissonance regarding his duty as Hokage and duty as a father, his poor mind was more than happy to go tearing down any kind of escape from the self-inflicted torment.

"And now, in one last showing of duty and honor, Genin Naruko Namikaze will commit seppuku."

Minato stepped aside, and everyone's focus was directed to Naruko.

She maneuvered her arms out of the sleeves, exposing her bare chest to the world, as was customary of the ritual sacrifice, and she grabbed the killing dagger, positioning the blade at her abdomen, ready to pierce deep and slice across. The idea was to get down deep enough to slice the descending aorta in the body, causing a quick death from blood loss at the hands of a quick, cold bite.

There was no worry about Kurama breaking out and laying waste to the village, as it was already confirmed by Minato that the Yang half of the Nine-Tails in his daughter would be merged with the Yin half inside himself, and he would most likely be incapacitated for a few days as his body adjusted.

Before she killed herself, Naruko looked at her father.

"Just so you know, I'm not just killing myself right now."

"Are you referring to the Nine-Tails?"

"Nope…you're grandchild."

Minato froze.

"Yeah, not exactly how I planned on telling you, but yeah. You're going to be a granddad, Dad! Shin'en and I are having a baby," Naruko smiled brightly, happily, and genuinely despite the situation.

She was well and truly happy to tell her father about her child, though there was some understandable sadness in there.

Minato had something of an opposite reaction, in that this little tidbit of info was the proverbial straw, and his mental health was the camel. The Hokage's pupil and iris dilated to the size of pinpricks, blood vessels erupted across his sclera, veins bulged across his face, and he let out strangled, choking cries.

Amidst all the spittle and gasping, Minato's hand drew back and a shaky, wobbly, unstable Rasengan formed. He just barely managed to form some words.

"_I'll KILL YOU!"_

Just then, the Barrier Team that monitored the invisible dome around the Leaf all freaked out when _someone_ went hurtling through from above.

Minato's thrust his hand forward, aiming to turn Naruko's head into paste, but a firm, cold hand suddenly clamped down hard on his wrist when the swirling orb of chakra was just inches from the pregnant Jinchuuriki's face. Minato looked down, shocked, and noted healthy, sun-kissed skin, a ring, the metal band sparkling in the sunlight, a red stone inscribed with the kanji for "lord" in the center of the ring.

Minato's gaze slowly trailed further upward as he heard the sound of gently settling cloth. A loose-fitting black sleeve went up to a high collar, left unbuttoned to reveal the face, and what a handsome face it was. More striking than the lips and the nose and the jaw structure, even more striking than the black hair, so many dozens of thin strands pushed back over the scalp to expose the forehead, which in turn was covered by the forehead protector of the Hidden Cloud, a scratch through the symbol.

No, the most striking feature of the young man currently applying so much pressure to Minato's wrist that his hand was purpling and the bones were steadily beginning to fracture, were the brilliantly glowing supernovas in his eyes.

"No," Shin'en said. "You won't."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**Started this on Monday, March 23, 2020, and finished on March 26, 2020. 13k+ in four days…**_

_**I'd better get some Reviews for that kind of energy.**_

_**Speaking of energy, I'm feeling it right now. It's a cliffhanger, yes, but it shouldn't last any longer until sometime next week. Online classes pick back up on Monday, so I'll have to deal with those, but other than that, we're rocking.**_

_**To recap the chapter: Kankuro's dead, Gaara's dead, most of the main cast in brain dead, Sasori, thanks to a year's worth of training with a bunch of S-class criminals, has enough skill with the Magnet Style to match Perfect Sage Mode Jiraiya in taijustu, but could kill just about anyone by filling their body with the thousands of Iron Sand particles that he keeps floating around a certain range. Sasuke was able to deduce Naruko's secret through paranoia, a hunch, and Naruko just flat-out confessed, not wanting to lie anymore, and after she was arrested and pled not just her case, but Shin'en's, even outlying the Akatsuki's plan for the world, it was still voted on that she would be executed. Minato made the thing public due to the genjutsu placed on him by Shin'en years ago, and was mentioned in passing in Chapter 67 of **__**Backup Plan**__**, all for the purpose of the above dramatic entrance, and it was a whole lot easier to stop the whole thing by dropping down from above instead of having to materialize inside of some chamber.**_

_**A spoiler for next chapter:**_

_**It will not open up with the village exploding because of the Akatsuki. **_

_**I did not spend all that time thinking up that torture chamber with all the Sealing jutsu just for Naruko to look around it and have a chat with Ibiki.**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	6. Moving the Pieces

_The Fourth Great Ninja War: Pt. 1_

_**It felt so good to see Reviews show up in my email again. **_

_**I'm also going to be having to dig deep for the Naruto side of things, because I have plans for Madara and Kaguya, the problem is that I haven't quite figured out how to get them in without either exposition or plot device. Madara's a bit harder to pencil in than Kaguya, so bear with me down the road.**_

_**I don't know if I'll go another chapter after this, and if I do, I don't know if it'll be another Shin'en chapter, or a Persephone chapter.**_

_**Speaking of Shin'en, much more centralized around him this time around.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Hidden Leaf Village yet stood, despite the one that nearly destroyed it last time having come diving in from above to stop the execution of his fiancé. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on your hopes and outlooks, there was no epic battle between Shin'en and Minato, or even a battle period. Certainly, there were shinobi who drew weapons and molded chakra, ready to fight out of nothing but pure instinct.

On the flip side, at the sight of Shin'en, there were many shinobi who immediately fled the scene, and at this very moment, were huddled in the first place they found that they thought safe enough from the Ghost of the Blood Mist, which was very awkward for some people, seeing the mighty shinobi of the mighty Leaf, rocking back and forth in ball.

That was if you were lucky.

If you happened upon a particularly distressed shinobi, their coping mechanism probably would've scarred you for life depending on your constitution.

Anyway, since Shin'en was literally just _right there_, and he verbally surrendered, Jiraiya was able to get Minato in gear and the Hokage ordered the demigod arrested and immediately transported to the same dungeon that Naruko had been taken to. Obviously, the ceremonial execution was postponed, the accused taken to a similar cell for the time being, and martial law was declared for the village as decisions were made and investigations were ordered.

As for Minato himself, after receiving a quick dose of medical expertise from Tsunade in regards to the hand that Shin'en had very well nearly made explode from all the pressure he had put on the wrist, he went to the deadly shinobi after a quick, brutal council session was held, and a sentence was decided upon.

"You're going to be tortured," the Yellow Flash said flatly.

He was doing his utmost to keep himself together given all that appeared on his plate in recent days.

"Everyone in this village, everyone in the Land of Water, the Land of Lightning, the Land of Wind, everyone that you've ever hurt, directly or indirectly, will be given free invitation to come here, and do whatever they want to you, for however they long they want to. If they want to flay the skin of your penis, they'll be given the tools and some lemon juice. If someone wants to bend you over and fuck your ass with a rusted, serrated kunai, they will be given all the time they want.

"It doesn't even have to be people with a grudge against you. Psychopaths, scientists, etc., they can all come in do whatever they want. Experiment with different methods, test out new substances, conduct research in otherwise illegal ways—if Orochimaru wanted to come here and use you as a lab rat, I'd let him. I do know for a fact that the Aburame clan has been breeding some new species of Parasitic Insect, apparently designed specifically for torture and interrogation. Apparently, their bite is like fire and they like to burrow into the skin, steadily feeding on the muscle, laying their eggs within that hatch, and then burrow out. They've been trying to train the little buggers to go straight for the brain and siphon out the cells, but they've been having trouble. With someone as durable and resilient as you, especially with that water-based healing factor, I'm sure they'll make a breakthrough."

During all of that, Shin'en lay naked and restrained on the cold, unforgiving metal table, a metal covering over his eyes to prevent the use of the Sharingan that he obviously stole from an Uchiha during the Chunin Exam. He didn't speak or twitch or have any kind of visible reaction in the wake of Minato's promises

"What's the matter?" the Hokage taunted, taking the silence as victory. "Feeling the effect of the Matrix? It's quite the apparatus, isn't it? Jiraiya and I spent over a year creating it, layering in formula on top of formula. The simple version is that it completely locks down your chakra flow, making you unable to mold anything or even channel it throughout your body. On top of that, the Matric steadily leeches your chakra from your body, using it to power itself, and even on the off chance you do possess enough strength to attempt to overpower the Matrix, there are plenty of ventilation formulas to rapidly siphon out the excess chakra, and plenty of containment formulas to store that excess chakra for whatever use I deem necessary.

"Say, powering my villages' electric grid? Keeping the hospitals running? Making sure my stove comes on, and my heater and air conditioning work at home? Powering the charger for some girl's vibrating dildo? All of the above? Yeah, that's right, on top of being the world's bitch, you're also going to be a battery, you fucking _motherfucker_."

"Yes, quite the intimidating contraption you've created…_Dad_."

Minato snarled, his hand aching suddenly from how tight he was clenching.

"Had I not been detaching my spirit to come and examine the formulas ever since Naruko told me about this place, I might've found myself in something of a minor situation. I hate to burst your bubble, Hokage, but I will not be on the receiving end of any torture, aside from emotional here in a little bit, when I have to console your daughter.

"From what I've gathered in my studies, here and…abroad…shall we say, Sealing Jutsu works in a manner similar to that of computer code. If you know what you're doing, then you can virtually make anything happen. Granted the worse thing that can go wrong with computer code is that you crash your system, while the worst thing that can happen with Seals is that you accidentally create a black hole of rip the planet apart."

Minato blinked, unfamiliar with what a black hole was, as celestial studies weren't too high on the list of priorities in the Shinobi World.

"I have identified three ways I can easily escape from this cell you've made for me: the first is that I use my Dark Chakra, an energy completely foreign to this matrix and therefore immune to its restrictions, and simply break out of here."

"_Dark _Chakra?" Minato asked, confused.

"Yes, _Dark _Chakra. If regular chakra is created from mixing the mental energy of a strong mind, and the physical energy of a strong body, then Dark Chakra is a type of chakra that is fueled completely by the energy generated from negative emotions such as hatred, anger, anguish, etc. As this matrix is keyed to regular chakra, Dark Chakra would be like poison to it, and would destroy it…in theory, anyway.

"The second method I could is yet another energy that dwells inside me, yoki. I happened across a demon during my travels and managed to bind its power to me. Since yoki is a completely separate energy from this plane, this matrix certainly has no effect on it. The third way I could escape is that I simply use my divine powers, converting the molecules of my being into dihydrogen monoxide, and then being on my merry way with my fiancé and our child."

Shin'en was saying all of this seriously, with only a slight sarcastic edge. He was intentionally speaking from the back of his throat, causing his words to come out as an intimidating baritone that was resonating and echoing about the torture chamber. What wasn't helping things was that cover over his eyes; it was supposed to restrict his vision to zero, but Minato could tell that the demigod was looking right at him, looking _through _the cover and into his very soul, considering and preparing to cast judgement.

"However, I think I will use none of those options. Instead, I will go with the simple fourth option."

"The fourth…option?"

"Yes, the fourth option. Fitting, no? _Fourth _Hokage." The corners of Shin'en's lips quirked upward slightly, before he schooled himself. "I will give credit where credit is due, and I will say that this is indeed an impressive matric you've created. I dare say it's as impressive as the Reaper Death Seal that contains the Nine-Tails, and _more _impressive than your perfected Flying Thunder God. However, like all things, _Dad_, this matrix has a limit to it. It'll only handle so much chakra before it overloads, but it was designed to handle that wasn't it? It was designed to handle _me_.

"It would've worked when I was thirteen, and it certainly would've worked from anytime before a year ago, when I was returned to my full power, but now? After everything I've been through, all the suffering I've put up with, the friends I made, only to watch them die, the children I raised, only to find out they died as well through the manipulations of a _death god_!"

Shin'en had started out calmly enough, but his voice had risen into a roar. Minato realized the demigod was working himself up, getting his emotions heightened for _something_—and whatever it was, it was something _big_. Minato could feel the air charging and changing, and the Seals on the walls were slightly glowing, subtly thrumming as they were kicking into gear, but Shin'en showed no signs of fatigue or strain.

His lips were peeled back and his teeth clenched, forming a vicious snarl though. Minato heard the telltale high-pitched whistling sound of a _lot_ of chakra moving quickly, and he watched, transfixed, as the metal cover on Shin'en's eyes froze over and shattered to thousands of beautiful little sparkles.

And the Hokage saw it.

Shin'en's pupils, in a shape unknown to Minato, but to those that have studied the Greek language in any capacity, they would know that shape as the Omega.

The demigod's hair stood straight up, and Minato initiated his infamous teleportation jutsu just before everything exploded.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When you saw that something was about to go blow up, it was natural instinct to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible, and that was what had happened with the Hokage. He saw the light, felt the build up, and left, teleporting to the furthest away kunai that he thought of in the given moment, which happened to be a crevice on a mountain just a little bit outside of the Hidden Stone Village.

Appreciating the irony for just a moment, Minato teleported back to the Leaf, going off the worst case scenario that the rush of chakra from Shin'en had been enough to blow apart the whole village, so he teleported to a kunai that he had hidden in one of the tree outside the village.

He swallowed heavily at what he saw.

The village was still there, thank the gods, but the brightly glowing green dome of energy there on the opposite side of the village, at the outskirts, was enough to confirm a horrifying truth: Shin'en, in an instant, whatever he had done, had completely and totally overloaded the whole Matrix.

No, that wasn't entirely the case.

He hadn't just _overloaded_ the Matrix; he had _destroyed _it.

Months of planning and a whole bunch of math, accounting for variables, inputting data, using references and examples, using the data gathered from the Nine-Tails Attack and from the Chunin Exam as but mere _baselines_ for the Matrix, and all of the calculations had fallen abysmally short.

As Minato stood there, stunned and scared, he had to wonder just _how powerful_ had Shin'en Yūrei become.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He took a very deep breath, and thanks to months of training, was able to calm himself back down before he started a planetary event that probably would've rapidly mutated into an extinction-level event. The residual glow from all the chakra he was putting out faded as he controlled himself, and with a few puffs of smoke, he was dressed again. With a twitch of his hand and an application of will, his sword came flying out from under some nearby rubble and into his grasp.

Through the water in the air, Shin'en could feel the shinobi flocking to his location, coming to investigate and to fight. He was in no mood for fighting. He was rather sad, actually. Making himself relive the experiences necessary to trigger enough of an emotional response to kickstart an Awakening was not pleasant, and it was no joke when he told Minato that he was going to have to console Naruko after this.

That was the primary reason for his sadness.

He was sad for her, that all of her hopes and dreams had been shattered—by her own friends and family.

Tilting his head side to side hard enough to pop his neck, Shin'en got focused on the here and now. Initiating the remarkable power of water travel, the child-of-Poseidon equivalent to shadow travel, he crossed time and space, going to the complete opposite side of the village where Naruko was imprisoned. There were shinobi present at the small facility, ones obviously under order to guard the prisoner despite anything that happened elsewhere.

They saw Shin'en approach, and they attacked like wild animals. The demigod didn't bother staining his hands with their blood, instead opting to use his hydrokinesis to hold them to the ground while he went about his business. He wound his way through the halls, keeping everyone incapacitated with his unbeatable divine power.

When Shin'en got to Naruko's cell, he unceremoniously ripped the door off and entered.

"Young lady, you are in so much trouble for not telling me you are pregnant."

The Jinchuuriki smiled faintly, already showing the signs that she was barely hanging on to her tears. "Surprise…" she said lamely, forcing a weak smile that had nothing to do with the Seals.

Shin'en tore the restraints off and held her bridal style on his way out. When back outside, Naruko asked him to call off the Akatsuki, that she didn't want the village to be destroyed. Unquestioningly and unhesitatingly, Shin'en complied, using the ring's communication function to tell everyone to rendezvous at their chosen location.

Yes, the Akatsuki was here, and they were ready to lay waste to the Hidden Leaf, and where they certainly could've done it on their own in canon—just look at Pain by himself—destroying it now would've been tantamount to child's play. Still, reactions varied at not being able to cut loose and go on a rampage.

Deidara and Hidan were the most disappointed, Kakuzu, Sasori, and Zetsu didn't really care either way, while Kisame, Konan, Pain, and Obito were worried about Naruko, either through their own feelings, or through Shin'en's.

They were certainly not a family, and if you insinuated as such, you would be killed. You couldn't really call them friends, as S-class criminals with a penchant for mass murder weren't into friendship, but there was a degree of respect for each other.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_The Village Hidden in the Rain_

_About six minutes later_

The downpour outside was, for once, appropriate. If there had been sunshine, a beautiful, cloudless sky, a lovely breeze, Shin'en would've altered the weather to more accurately portray the current mood. He still remembered when he got back to the hideout after killing Yagura to find picture perfect weather, and it felt like he was getting slapped in the dick by the universe with a frozen fish.

The universe hadn't considered him on that day, but it made him feel good that his beloved was being taken into consideration as she sobbed uncontrollably into his chest as he held her to him after departing the Leaf, which, besides the crater where he had been kept outside the village, was in pristine condition.

A shitty consolation prize if there ever was one.

The whole tower was empty, not even a rat scurrying around somewhere in the walls. Pain had temporarily relocated and the rest of the Akatsuki was out making haste for the Jinchuuriki. Now that they were more or less exposed and warnings had been sent to the rest of the Kage, the timetable needed to be sped up accordingly.

Besides, since Naruko's mission had ended in disaster, there was nothing holding the Akatsuki back from completing Project Tsuki no Me.

But no one was going to say that out loud.

Shin'en was truly feeling miserable right now. His Naruko was heartbroken and crying her soul out onto him, and he couldn't even force a tear out on her behalf; his body just didn't want to cry. Ironically, he felt sort of like a parent right now, one that was having to console their crying child after they touched the hot stove after being told not to because it was going to burn them.

He _had _warned Naruko to not get her hopes up. He had told her not to put faith into her mission, and to expect nothing but the worst. He had told her that the best course of action, to bring about world peace with the fewest casualties possible, was to capture the Jinchuuriki and seal the Tailed-Beasts in order to recreate the Ten-Tails, seal it into Obito so that he could become its Jinchuuriki, and then with that power, initiate the infinite dream. The Akatsuki and the world would get to experience everlasting peace in a world of their personal fantasy brought to life, and he, Shin'en would be immune to the technique based on what had been determined in regards to ocular genjutsu, and he would take her, Naruko, with him to Persephone's world, where things were going to be much easier and much simpler.

But _noooo_.

Naruko was determined to prove that hearts could be turned around, that the false peace of the Infinite Tsukuyomi wasn't needed, and that they could all successfully strive towards a world of understanding, one where the Cycle of Hatred could be broken indefinitely. And then she was shat upon by her own friends and family after pouring her heart out to them, after telling them Shin'en's story and all the pain that came with it.

All that effort, and her own beloved dad had voted to kill her.

And now here they were after everything was said and done. Naruko was devastated and sobbing, and Shin'en, despite his many cruel acts, was not so cruel as to tell her he told her so. But he was cruel enough to think that this is what she got for not listening. Still, he was betrothed to her, the father of the child steadily growing in her womb, and he was going to be there for her through thick and thin.

He had an extensive family history of _very _fucked up marriages, he was not about to become another chapter in the book. He was going to be different, he was going to be outstanding; he didn't really have a mother in his life, but the matron had expectations, Yugito had expectations, and Yūrei all had expectations of him as a gentleman one day, and he was going to not juts live up to them, but exceed them.

At the very least, he was going to make his sister proud of him.

Unbidden, the thought of Persephone caused a smile to appear on his face, which caused Naruko to let out a hiccup as she sensed the sudden spike in positive emotion.

"W-What?"

"I'm just realizing that we need to tell your sister-in-law that she's going to be an aunt."

Naruko smiled through her tear-streaked face, finding a blip of light and reaching for it. "Y-Yeah, and we—_hic—_need to tell your mom, too. How do you think she's going to handle being a grandmother at…how old is she?"

"I'm seventeen, she was twenty-three when my sister and I were born, so that makes her forty."

"Wow. Forty and a grandmother. Some women are forty and still changing diapers."

"Mm-hm. Speaking of, do you think you're ready for changing diapers?"

"You're changing the poopy ones."

"Why am _I _changing the poopy diapers?"

"Because you're the dad. It's better for the baby if Daddy is the one changing the poopy diapers, and better for the baby if Mommy is feeding with her boobs."

"And where did you glean this information from?"

"Mother's intuition."

"Oh, yeah? Well, my _father's _intuition tells me that Daddy's going to be changing the baby's _and_ Mommy's diapers, because Mommy's going to be stuck in some postpartum underwear for a little bit until her body heals from giving birth."

'_Uh, Kurama…? Is that true?'_

'_**Every word. Kushina was bleeding into Depends for almost six months. Could be worse for you, with your immature body having yet a few years to go until peak performance.'**_

Naruko shuddered, and Shin'en and Kurama both shared a conspiratorial grin.

"You're not. Changing. My diapers," the blonde asserted firmly.

Shin'en snorted. "I have seen your body in its entirety, and I have been in the bathroom after you clogged the toilet. I have even made love to your asshole after you washed yourself out and made sure you were clean because you wanted to try anal, and I said no on the grounds of not wanting your filth on my dick. Changing your diapers would be just another bullet point of an extensive list."

"Oh, so you _want _to change my diaper? Pervert."

"We're going to be married," Shin'en said flatly, "and if everything goes well, we'll be old enough to where changing your diapers will be an every day occurrence."

Naruko shuddered. "As much as I want to grow old with you, I'm not looking forward to being so old that I can't control my sphincters like that."

"Not to worry, I shall simply smother you with a pillow to spare you from such a humiliating fate."

"You are _such _a gentleman."

"And _you_ are my beautiful fiancé."

"It's going to be so great when we can officially call ourselves husband and wife," Naruko said dreamily.

Shin'en's lips quirked up into a sarcastic smile. "We can get married literally any time we want to. We can say our vows right now and marry here in private. It's _you_ that wants to host a grand ceremony."

"Well, considering my lovely groom has a family of _gods_ that he can bend to his will, I don't see any reason why we can't have the grandest, awesomest wedding anyone's ever had."

"Yes, because shinobi are all about the _grandest _and the _awesomest_."

"Hey, we're both so monumentally powerful, we can't viably be considered shinobi anymore."

"That is true."

Naruko wiped her eyes, and Shin'en settled backwards on the bed, the blonde laying on top of him, loosely wrapping her arms around his neck while he placed an arm around her waist. They stayed like that for a long time, both of them merely basking in each other's warmth, until Naruko gently rolled over and curled into Shin'en's side.

"Can you tell if it's a boy or a girl yet?" Naruko asked quietly. She was winding down, getting ready for a nap.

He could, actually. While genital structures didn't start forming until about nine weeks, and weren't visible until about sixteen weeks, a baby's gender was set as soon as the sperm penetrated the egg and the DNA was merged into a complete code. With his prowess in hydrokinesis, Shin'en could read that code due to how close it was to water, and so he knew what kind of chromosomes had been created.

However, given how tired Naruko was right now, what she did not need was the extraordinary truth, so Shin'en went with a white lie.

"It's a boy."

Naruko smiled. "Liar."

Shin'en shrugged. "I'll tell you when you wake up."

"Mm-kay…"

Six seconds after she said that, her conscious body shut down and her brain took over all functions, regulating heartbeat, breathing, digestion, and everything else.

Shin'en stared at the dimly lit ceiling, wondering if it was an act of a god or just random genetic chance that Naruko was carrying twins.

A boy and girl in the same placenta.

Identical twins.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Minato was ill.

Tsunade had checked him over and it was confirmed that he had contracted a sickness, but it was no physical sickness caused by bacteria or viruses or any other harmful agent. No, this sickness was of a mental, emotional, and spiritual nature.

His hair, once full, spikey, and yellow as the sunflower, was now flat, limp, and dull. His blue eyes had completely lost their luster, and were now sunken and dull. His skin was pale and pulled tight across his face and hands. He could feel his heart beating in his chest, feeling like it was struggling to pump blood through his veins and arteries.

Tsunade told him that this sickness was proof that he was a human being that possessed a soul.

He was conflict with himself, that much he knew for a certainty. He was firm in mind that he was going above and beyond in performing his duty as Hokage, putting the people of the village and the village itself above everything—even his own family, which was were the conflict came in. His daughter was a traitor, she was even set to be executed on _his_ orders—the first example of his spectacular failure as a father—for the further crimes of consorting with the enemy.

Not just consorting, but _fucking_ the enemy, and bearing his children no less

Like Jiraiya, Minato had wished that it was a rape. He had wished that his darling girl had been violated and abused, instead of in love and giving of consent. He certainly would've been furious and on a warpath, and totally supportive if Naruko had desired an abortion, but it would've been _right_.

It would've been _correct_.

It would've been _just_.

It would've been better for everyone if Shin'en had raped Naruko, because then Minato could add _that_ to an extensive list of charges, and could bring it up on an international scale, the daughter of a Kage having been raped by the Bingo Book's top entry, and then a world-wide manhunt could be officially organized—and still could, technically, on the charges of kidnapping _and _rape, but Minato didn't feel like spinning such a lie and having to face the potential of being exposed and then questioned by the Imperial Courts.

Instead, Minato was now stuck as a grandfather to a child of the world's number one enemy, who was more or less the head of an organization that was more or less bent on world domination, and more or less had the power to pull it off. The sad part was that Minato couldn't bring himself to care.

So what if the Akatsuki got their hands on all the Tailed-Beasts and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi? At least then nobody would have to worry about anything, not even Minato. If anything, he'd get to live out his dream: he and his wife, young and happily married again in a world without the Hidden Villages and the constant struggle of war and cold war, setting up playdates with all of their friends and their little children, with their only real concern being whether or not Naruko was going to need a change of underwear in the wake of an accident.

Speaking of marriage, Minato was basically divorced now. He couldn't bring himself to tell Kushina about any of this, about Naruko, Shin'en, their impending marriage and their child. He didn't want to burden her with this horrible news, didn't want to see her heart break and her soul get crushed, and so he had her checked into the hospital and put into a coma.

He didn't know if he would ever allow her to awake.

As for his adoptive so, Menma had gone "missing."

It took the ANBU all of thirty seconds to find the boy, hiding away in the rather desolate Sarutobi compound with Konohamaru, and Minato had ordered the black-ops team to let his son be. The Hokage had no doubt that his son new of the recent happenings and was shattered by them. However, he had run to Konohamaru, not his father, and so if that was the case then so be it.

If Menma found more comfort in Konohamaru than in Minato, then, as a father, Minato was okay with it.

What he wasn't okay with, or at least, still trying to process, was that after going through Menma's room, he had found an extensive secret wardrobe of girl's clothing, everything from socks, panties, and bras, to t-shirts, dresses, and kunoichi gear. None of which had been taken from Naruko's room, meaning Menma had acquired all of this for himself ever since…some point in the past.

Considering all the other ways he had failed as a father, Minato was going to let this slide on the basis of where he had failed Naruko, he was not going to fail Menma. Hopefully. He was going to let his son do his thing, and be completely supportive of whatever that was, come Shin'en or high water.

In time, anyway. Right now, Minato was depressed and his body failing through sheer force _of_ depression.

His village wasn't in shambles this time, thank heaven. That whole matrix, in the less-than-a-second that it held up against Shin'en, had been able to take enough of the chakra through its squiggles to lower the yield of the explosion. Based on the data gathered, if Shin'en had done that thing if the middle of the village square, not only would there be no more village, there wouldn't be any anything else for the surrounding twelve miles.

Shin'en could've wiped the Hidden Leaf and a decent chunk of the Land of Fire right off the map _before _he started throwing down for real.

That thought only served to further drag Minato's crumbling psyche into the dirt.

In summary: he is the Hokage and sworn to uphold the law of the village, protect the village, and protect the people of the village, seeing them as his own family. In doing so, he was forced to basically murder his daughter after learning that not only is she engaged to the enemy, but that she is also pregnant with his offspring of a willing sexual engagement. His son has no confidence or trust in him, his wife is in a coma that he ordered her into to spare her the emotional trauma of learning about their daughter. Most importantly, where he was doing great as the Hokage, he was failing miserably as a dad and as a husband, and that was where all the disconnect was coming into play.

He loved his family, his wife, his daughter his son, but he was the Hokage, the village was his family, and he had to love them too. In loving the village family, he had to put aside his family, and in loving his family, he had to put aside the village family. But as the Hokage, he couldn't put aside the village family, as that would be shirking his duty as the Hokage, but as a father and husband, he couldn't put aside his family, as that would be shirking his duty as a father and a husband.

Minato let out a stressed, pained, pathetic moan as he put his face into hands.

He needed _love_ right now. He needed someone, _anyone_ to come in here and tell him it was going to be alright. He needed someone to kiss him and hug him and till him they loved him, and that he was loved and that he was needed, and that there people out there that were looking up to him and counting on him to love them back.

There was knock at the door.

"E-Ent—_ahem_," Minato sat up straight in his chair and performed a quick Transformation Jutsu, restoring himself into the fair-skinned, blue-eyed, full, blonde haired Hokage that he used to look like. "You may enter."

This time, his voice was clear and firm, the voice of the leader he didn't feel like he was anymore.

An ANBU gently opened the door. "My Lord, there is a man at the Southern Gate claiming to be Kabuto Yakushi. He says he has a proposition for you regarding the…regarding the _gravest threat the world has ever faced_. Would you like us to permit him entrance and an audience with you?"

"Yes."

The ANBU left, and Minato was left by himself again, wondering why in the hell Kabuto would return here and after it was confirmed that he was a traitor and spy for Orochimaru, especially when Naruko finally told the truth about Orochimaru's role in the Akatsuki, how the Sannin had tried and failed to take over Shin'en mind, body, and soul, effectively rendering him dead almost four years ago. Scratch that; what the hell had Kabuto been up to all these years that would inspire him with enough confidence to show his face to the Leaf given the current climate?

Not even a minute later, Minato was provided with the answer.

Though covered in a brown robe with a snake-themed hood, it was quite obvious that Kabuto had some work done in the past. What could be seen of his body—his head and neck—was an unnatural pallor, though that was probably due to the scales that were taking place of skin. His black eyes were not so anymore, but were instead the same yellow as Orochimaru's, complete with slit pupils and purple eyeliner.

"Lord Fourth," Kabuto greeted, voice oily, slick, smooth, and confident, just like his former master's. "I understand you have a bit a problem on your hands. I would like to offer my services."

"And what services could you possibly offer, traitor?" Minato asked, voice even.

Kabuto smirked and clapped his hands, causing four coffins to rise from the floor. The lids creaked as they gently fell forward, coming to a soft rest before Minato's desk.

The Hokage's eyes were wide at what he saw.

"Summoning Jutsu: Reanimation," Kabuto said. "I have perfected this technique and can implement it on levels that Tobirama and Orochimaru could only dream of. I can deploy an army anywhere, at any time, for any purpose. I can give this army…to the world."

"The world?"

"I take it by now you know of the Akatsuki's grand plan, Project Tsuki no Me?"

"Unfortunately."

"I for one, don't intend to live in a world of dreams. I rather enjoy the struggle of my experiments and the feelings I get when they're successful, and when you stop and think about, the Akatsuki winning means we all lose our personal freedom and become slaves to our dreams. Besides that, whose to say Project Tsuki no Me is what it's claimed to be? What if instead of living our dreams, we're subject to our nightmares? Or there are no dreams at all and we just die? Or, even scarier, since the Akatsuki needs the Tailed-Beasts, what happens if they decide that they don't want to complete Project Tsuki no Me and instead want to use their news pets as world-dominating weapons for their own gains?"

As Kabuto went on, Minato was feeling dumber and dumber for not having thought of these possibilities beforehand. Who _was _to say whether the Akatsuki would stick to their stated plan and not have a change of heart midway through? Who could say whether or not there wouldn't be a schism in the organization over what to do with the Tailed-Beasts? Even, better who was to say whether or not Project Tsuki no Me worked as advertised?

Of course, information on the Project was coming from Naruko and—

Minato's pupils dilated as a thought struck him like a lightning bolt, and the rest of his psyche finally evaporated.

His daughter was being _lied to_. She had been unwittingly brainwashed by Shin'en and the Akatsuki, probably through a combination of genjutsu, honeyed words, and literal brainwashing. Naruko was _not_ in the right state of mind, and therefore _had_ been raped by Shin'en, and she was an unfortunate victim of the machinations of madmen whose real plan with the Tailed-Beasts was probably nothing short of total destruction, meaning there was now a very serious threat mobile in the world, and Minato was one of very few that knew about it, meaning it was his responsibility to put an end to it.

But he could not do it alone.

Kabuto was still in the middle of delivering his ultimate speech, when Minato bellowed.

"_ANBU!_"

Given the tone and his body language, the masked ninja appeared at the foot of his desk instead of slicing the snake man apart.

"Yes, my Lord?"

Minato pulled a handful of official Scrolls from his desk and scribbled messages on each with blinding speed before rolling them up and throwing them.

"Take those to the other villages. Deliver them to the Kage therein. It's time for Land of Iron to host the second Five Kage Summit."

The ANBU took the scrolls and vanished, all of them making the utmost host for their respective destinations.

Kabuto blinked. "And my offer of an army of undead shinobi to be deployed as needed?"

"Accepted. What is that you want in return?"

"The bodies of the Akatsuki, including Shin'en Yūrei's."

"May I ask why?"

"You may."

Minato waited for Kabuto to elaborate, and then realized the snake was being smart with him in regards to being given to permission to ask why.

The Hokage's eyebrow twitched. "_Why_ do you want the bodies of the Akatsuki, assuming there's enough left to collect?"

Kabuto's eyes flashed. "There had better be _at least_ a cup of blood left over, whatever the situation."

"Assuming there's at least a cup of blood left over, _why_ do you want the Akatsuki's bodies?"

Orochimaru's disciple grinned as he allowed the four corpses to sink back into the ground, leaving no trace they had ever emerged in the first place.

"Research purposes."

Minato hummed. "You'll have your research material provided you deploy the Reanimated shinobi as _I_ instruct."

"Of course. I won't be too far from you. I trust with your sensory abilities, you'll be able to keep track of me."

"I will."

"Then I look forward to working with you, my Lord."

Kabuto vanished in a puff of smoke, and Minato felt the man's strange chakra appear elsewhere, on a nearby rooftop.

That was irrelevant, however. All of it was compared to this new development. Minato rose from his chair and went to the window. The clouds were beginning to break again, letting beautiful rays of sunshine illuminate his beautiful village. Yes, it was all clear now; the Akatsuki were liars, Shin'en was a raping, manipulative monster that was going to be put down after being severely beaten by anyone that wanted to try their hand at torture, Naruko was actually innocent and just needed counseling to help get her mind free of the genjutsu and the lies, and the Akatsuki was an insane group of people, their minds addled by delusion and chakra poisoning, and they needed to be exterminated like the rapid dogs they were.

And he, Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage, the Yellow Flash, the Hero fo the Third Great Ninja War, was going to be the world's brilliantly shining savior. He was going to protect his village, repair his marriage, develop a stronger relationship with his son and be totally supportive of whatever Menma was into, and most importantly, above all else, he was going to save his daughter.

A ray came to shine upon Minato, and for the first time in years, he felt great.

His priorities were finally in line, and he felt _great_.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

By the time the messages were delivered and the Kage were able to organize their respective travel arrangements, and then actually make their way to the Land of Iron and make themselves comfortable as they waited for the others to arrive, and, ultimately, they were all sitting down in the big conference room together…by that time, the bodies of Roshi, Han, Utakata, and Fuu had all unceremoniously dropped to an unforgiving stone floor, all of them dead as doornails.

By the time the Kage all sat down, only the Two, Eight, and Nine-Tails remained, though the sum total of that information had yet to be shared.

"Welcome, Five Kage," Mifune greeted. "Lord Hokage, you've called this meeting. You have the floor."

"Thank you," Minato said as he rose to his feet.

"For the sake of time, I did not include all of the information that I have in my summons. I will share it with you now. Firstly, the rogue shinobi Shin'en Yūrei is alive, and he is a leading member of the organization I mentioned, the Akatsuki. The Akatsuki themselves is an organization comprised of S-rank criminal shinobi, comprised of Zetsu of the Hidden Grass, Kakuzu of the Hidden Waterfall, Hidan of the Hot Water, Sasori of the Hidden Sand, Deidara of the Hidden Stone, Kisame of the Hidden Mist, Konan of the Hidden Rain, Pain of the Hidden Rain, Shin'en Yūrei of the Hidden Cloud, and a shinobi of unknown origins known merely as Tobi."

Fun fact: Naruko's knowledge of Tobi extended to the story that he was Madara Uchiha, something that Kurama confirmed based on the voice and feel of the man's chakra, and the explanation behind the _lack_ of chakra was that he'd been forced to make modifications to his body in order to continue living for as long as he had. The truth that Madara was really Obito was known only to Shin'en and Zetsu, and Naruko had kept to herself that Tobi was Madara in order to not cause any more of a panic than she already had.

"These ten were banded together under the one called Pain through his possession of the Rinnegan. Through his command, the Akatsuki gathered in strength and power over the course of the past fourteen months, training with each other Shin'en towards their ultimate goal of _capturing the Tailed-Beasts_ and recombining them into their original form, a monster known as the _Ten-Tails_. With such a power under their control, their _story_ is that they would use the Ten-Tails and seal it into one of their members, presumably Shin'en or Pain, and then they would use their power to bounce a super-genjutsu off the moon, and enslave us all in a world of our greatest dreams.

"However, it is my belief that this stated plan is a lie, and the Akatsuki's real goal is to use the Tailed-Beasts for themselves to wage a massive war against our world for their own purposes, either base domination and the desire to rule, or they have an unknown ulterior motive. Regardless, I feel it is our responsibility to our people, our villages, and to our world that we officially unite and combat the Akatsuki before it is too late."

The Raikage stood up just before Minato even finished his speech. "You have the support of the Hidden Cloud."

The protectors he brought with him, Omoi and Karui, both of them bearing the rank of Elite Jonin, both had eyes of steel and determination as they supported their Kage in his declaration against their number one enemy.

The Mizukage stood right after the Raikage. "The Hidden Mist will provide all the aid we can."

While back on their feet and making tremendous headway, they weren't exactly thriving yet, even with the resources provided by the Cloud, but they could certainly fight. Ao and Chojuro agreed, anyway.

As far as the Hidden Sand went, they really didn't have much of a choice, considering there wasn't much of a Hidden Sand anymore. However, in the wake of Gaara's kidnapping and confirmed death, all the splinter groups that had formed under the deranged Kazekage's rule had returned to the main village, and their current Kazekage, by way of might and public approval, was a scarred young man by the name of Shira, accompanied by his friends, confidants, and teammates, a young woman named Sen, and an even younger woman, more appropriately considered a girl, called Yome.

"The Hidden Sand will fight against the Akatsuki with all of you."

Minato just nodded, absentmindedly marveling at the fact that saying Shin'en Yūrei was part of the Akatsuki had been enough of a motivator to unite three of the Big Five. He really didn't count the Sand, as they didn't have much of a choice but to contribute what they could, especially with the Leaf providing life support in the wake of Deidara's attack.

That left only one village.

All eyes turned to the Tsuchikage.

Ohnoki smirked. "I suppose this is the wrong time to admit that I've used the Akatsuki in the past, eh?"

Reactions varied amongst the Kage, with the faces of Shira and Mei tightening, telling everyone who was even halfway trained in facial expression that they too had knowledge regarding the utilization of the Akatsuki.

"Don't look at me like that, Namikaze. They do the right stuff for a low price. That's just good business."

"Agreed, but not why we're here. Ohnoki, are you going to join this war or not?"

"Should I? As you said, this is a war, and we have our villages and our people to look out for. Unlike all of you, I have no quarrel with the Akatsuki or with Shin'en Yūrei. What good will it do for me and mine to enter a war we have no stake in? Beyond any of that, you seem to have an awful lot of information on the Akatsuki. Why is that?"

Without missing a beat, to the surprise of both Jiraiya and Tsunade—for who else would Minato bring to a meeting such as this besides the Sannin?—the Hokage answered truthfully.

"My daughter, Naruko Namikaze, who I'm sure many of you will remember as the girl that managed to fight Shin'en almost to a standstill four years ago, has been consorting with the Akatsuki. It is my belief that her mind has been toyed and played with, manipulated and altered to a point of delusion. When the Akatsuki was away, training, she found them and spent that year with them. In the most recent weeks, she was raped by Shin'en, is pregnant with his child, and believes that she and him are due to be married."

"Bullshit!"

Everyone turned to look at Ei and Mei. They both looked at each other, slightly embarrassed, and hosted a quick, two-second chat with their eyes before Ei continued in that deep voice of his.

"Shin'en is many things. A rapist is not one of them."

"And you're sure of this how? He was missing for over three years, a lot can happen to a mind in that time," Minato countered evenly.

"When Yūrei was still alive," Mei said, "Sukina and Yūwaku performed sexual favors in exchange for information from various informants. Technicalities regarding consent aside, Shin'en viewed the people they slept with as their rapists. Towards the end of the war, he personally tortured and murdered every single one of those people."

Jiraiya and Tsunade, after years of teamwork and partnership, had mastered the art of undetectable communication, and they were both endlessly confused, concerned, and worried that Minato would think that Shin'en had raped Naruko, and that she was just a brainwashed victim. It was obvious to them that Naruko was truly in love with Shin'en, and the way he literally came diving into the Leaf to save her was a clear indicator of his outrageously strong devotion.

There was also the fact that he could've wiped out the village after his escape, but he didn't, most likely because Naruko didn't want him to.

If she was just a brainwashed thrall, pregnant or not, why would Shin'en go to such lengths for her?

And what would it do to Minato when whatever delusion he had apparently comforted himself with was broken?

"That might've been true then, but I believe that the boy you two once knew is long gone, and in his place is a rabid animal that needs to be put down. However, I suppose whether Shin'en raped my daughter or not is relevant to none but me. The fact still remains that he committed enough crimes to warrant immediate execution without trial, and he is part of an organization intent on capturing Jinchuuriki and utilizing the Tailed-Beasts for a purpose obviously less than savory. Now, are you two still with me, or not?"

"We're with you," Mei said, "but we do _not_ believe that Shin'en raped Naruko."

Minato nodded his head in that _whatever floats your boat_ kind of way that made it clear he didn't care what they believed. He looked at Shira, who nodded, and then back at Ohnoki, who was engrossed in a hushed conversation with his humongous bodyguard, Akatsuchi. The diminutive Kage's granddaughter, Kurotsuchi, looked concerned.

When the conversation finished, Ohnoki turned back to the room.

"I have just received intelligence that Han and Roshi, my Jinchuuriki, have gone missing. The Hidden Stone will join this…Allied Shinobi Force."

A foreign warmth blossomed in everyone's chest at the Tsuchikage's declaration.

History was being made here before their very eyes; the Five Great Nations, coming together for the first time ever.

"Then it is decided," Mifune said with a smile.

"And so it is."

At the extra voice, everyone jumped into action, especially those that recognized the voice. The Kage leapt up, and their respective bodyguards took positions in the front on top of the table. Mifune drew his sword, as his hid guards. There was a soft, fluttering sound, and the banners that were emboldened with the symbol of the villages gently cascaded to the ground, all of them having been severed.

There, sitting up straight with his right arm resting in the crook of his cloak, a cigarette slowly burning in the corner of his mouth, was Shin'en Yūrei, his dark emerald eyes alert and roaming the room. No one moved, partly because they weren't picking up any kind of hostile vibes, though mostly because they were stunned through their sandals how Shin'en was just…_there_.

No warnings, no alarms, no sounds, no reports—absolutely nothing to suggest he had to force his way in, and this was the Land of Iron, practically the samurai hotspot, one of the world's leaders in anti-shinobi technology, so there shouldn't have been a way that Shin'en had managed to slip past the guards and the checkpoints, no matter how skilled he was.

Shin'en's eyes slid over to Mei. "Bitch." His eyes continued to roll over the crowd, passing over Ao and Chojuro without much of an emotion, and he settled on the entourage from the Cloud.

"Omoi and Karui. It has certainly been a long time. Elite Jonin, I see. Congratulations."

"Fuck you," Karui hissed.

"You killed Darui and a whole lot of our comrades," Omoi said venomously. "You're a traitor and a monster, and you have the balls to great us like old friends? Bastard!"

"You mean to say we're not old friends? I'm hurt." Shin'en looked to the Raikage. "Ei! You put a bounty on my head. Dick."

The Fourth Lightning Shadow scowled, but before he could say anything, Shin'en had already directed his attention elsewhere.

"I don't know _where_ you get the idea that I raped Naruko and brainwashed her, but I think that not only is that an indicator of how desperately you need psychological help, but also a clear statement of just how much faith and confidence you have in your daughter's power and character."

Minato opened his mouth to deliver a vicious rebuttal, but Shin'en's hand snapped up in a "stop" motion, and the Hokage's mouth instantly closed. That action and its results were not lost on the Kage and the others.

Shin'en looked at Ohnoki and his nose wrinkled. "When the Bible says that Jesus wept, it's because he looked into the future and saw your _nose_. Seriously, old man, with all the jutsu and medicine around today, _why_ have you not had any work done at the face of yours?"

The Tsuchikage humphed, the snickers of his granddaughter not helping his mood.

"When you get to be as old as I am, _brat_, you won't look so hot either."

"That implies you ever looked good in the first place."

Kurotsuchi had to bury her face in her sleeve so that no one would see her laughing, but everyone with half a brain knew otherwise.

Shin'en directed his attention to the delegation from the Sand, and his expression fell. "I see we're just giving the hat to anyone that can be scraped from the bottom of the barrel nowadays."

"The Hidden Sand will have vengeance on the Akatsuki for all the people you killed!"

"And who are you again?" Shira opened his mouth to answer that with a strong declaration, but Shin'en cut him off. "Wait, no, don't bother answering. I don't ask dogshit what its name might be."

Shira growled, ready to retort, but Shin'en had already moved on to Mifune.

"Ah, the samurai general that had his ass handed to him by Hanzo the Salamander during the Second Great Ninja War. Glad to see you're alive and well. Tell me, does it bother your moral code any that you're hosting some of the vilest men and women on the planet?"

"You're here and I don't feel too bothered."

"Ooh, the old man can fight with words as much as with a sword. Impressive."

"Enough of these _games_, boy!" Ei shouted. "Tell us why you're here so we can get to pounding your little ass!"

Shin'en shrugged and stood, putting his arm back through the sleeve. He took his cigarette and mashed the burning tip against his cheek without so much as a twitching eye.

"I am here to negotiate a preemptive end to hostilities. After _this one_ tried to kill my fiancé, the Akatsuki had to step out timetable, which is why the only Jinchuuriki that remain are the Two, Eight, and Nine-Tails. Sorry about Utakata, Mei, but he truthfully wouldn't have been much help to you. Little fag's main weapon of choice was _bubbles_, for God's sake.

"After the Leaf debacle, it was easy to predict that Minato would gather the other Five Kage and propose an alliance to fight the Akatsuki in an all-out war for the remaining Jinchuuriki in order to prevent us from completing Project Tsuki no Me—which I assure you, is exactly what Naruko said it was. We're going to remake the Ten-Tails, use its power to initiate the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and all of you get to enjoy an eternity of peace in your heart's most desired dream."

"Lies!" Minato spat.

Shin'en exhaled slowly. "It is surprising to me that you have so little faith in your daughter as to not believe her when she told you my story. Lying is a tool of the shinobi, and Ei and Mei can give you a detailed report of just how much I _hate_ shinobi, so you can be very firm in the knowledge that one thing I do not do is _lie_. If you ever call me a liar again, Hokage, I will take you down and suck the Nine-Tails out of your body."

Heads whipped around at Minato.

"I thought your daughter was the Nine-Tails Jinchuuriki," Ohnoki said.

"Oh, she is…of the Yang half. Minato here sealed the Yin half into himself seventeen years ago, intending to sacrifice himself to the Shinigami and take half the Nine-Tails with him, but my _arrival_ that night was enough to draw the Reaper's attention away as he just did a rush job. In that regard, Minato owes me some thanks for saving his and his wife's lives, and also that of his daughter, in a way, for sparing her a childhood devoid of parents, subject to the anger and hatred of the village populace for being a Human Sacrifice. You're welcome," Shin'en finished sarcastically.

"While we're on the topic of Jinchuuriki," Mei said. "Your fiancé, Naruko, and her father, apparently, are both Jinchuuriki, and the woman you consider your mother-figure is a Jinchuuriki, and the man you see as an uncle is also a Jinchuuriki. Why would-"

"Mei, do you really think I would commit to a plan that would see any of them actually _die_?"

"Well, no, but there's still the question of how exactly you plan to handle them surviving the process of having their Tailed-Beast ripped from their bodies."

"Being a demigod is a pathway to many abilities, some consider to be unnatural," Shin'en intoned vaguely, making his voice reverberate through the whole room.

With how ominous that statement was, everyone in the room shifted as their imaginations brought forth dastardly scenarios, the fear behind them fueled by the stories they had already heard regarding the demigod before them.

"When I was six," Shin'en continued, "and I watched everyone I ever loved die in a single instance, I went mad with rage, and with all the mental capacity of a six-year-old, I resolved to kill every shinobi in the world, because all of the world's problems were because of shinobi. As I grew up and matured, and saw _many_ disturbing things, I realized that it wasn't just the shinobi, and not just the civilians, but _all_ the people in world were contributing to the humongous dumpster fire we live in. By the time I realized that, I was a fiery visionary with a peaceful world in mind, and the only way to achieve that world was to kill everyone alive. Some more things happened and that became less of a passionate belief and more of a sober observation.

"I still intend to bring peace to the world, because I have the most power, and something I have learned is that those with the most power have the most responsibility. I believe I have a responsibility to the world, to try and fix it. I can do that by killing all of you of giving the Earth back to herself, I can use various methods to enslave all of you and make you obey a set of laws that I lay down. I can be a grand enforcer of justice, using my godly powers to root out evil and corruption, end crimes in their planning stages, and make sure good food and clean water are distributed fairly and evenly."

"Then why don't you?" Mei practically begged.

The only other person in this room that had as much emotional investment in Shin'en was the Raikage, but that still wasn't the case. Mei had _been there_. She had been assigning the missions, reading the reports. She had watched and contributed to Shin'en's development, more so than anyone in the Cloud, so what was unfolding now, she felt responsible for and was desperately seeking a way to divert things from the destructive path they seemed to be heading down.

"Because I am only _half_ of a god. The effects of time are still with me, otherwise I would still be a newborn. I will continue to age, grow old, and eventually pass on, and as many teachings and wishes and measures that I leave in my wake, the world will eventually return to its present state, marred by blood, deception, and hatred. So, in order to bring about a true, everlasting change to the world so that peace may reign, I have resolved to decide between two courses of action, and my decision is based on yours:

"Surrender to me the remaining Tailed-Beasts, stand down and let the Akatsuki complete our mission, and none of you will die. The Jinchuuriki that have died in our efforts will be revived and they will enjoy the peace of the infinite dream, just as all of you will—no more war, no more poverty or disease, just everlasting life with your heart's desire. Conversationally, if your heart's desire _is_ to wage war and conquer the world, then you get to do that without actually ever hurting anybody. It's a win-win.

"_Or_," the air grew heavy and cold, and hairs stood up as the energy in the room increased, "you can engage in a pointless, bloody conflict in which case most of you will die, and the Akatsuki's efforts would be nearly in vain. We will succeed no matter what's in our way, we're the strongest people in the world, after all. So, it comes down to this: you can stand down, in which case _none_ of you will die, or you can fight, in which case _most _of you will die. You don't have to decide right away, we are talking about the lives of your beloved people, after all."

After a few tense moments of silence, it was the young Shira that broke it.

"You're insane. Whatever vision you have, whatever responsibility you think you have, this idea of dreams and total annihilation, you're _insane_, more than Gaara ever was. I'm new to this whole _being a Kage_ thing, and I know I don't have the most experience in the world, but I've had my own struggles.

"The Fourth Kazekage passed a law that barred access to the Shinobi Academy based on certain criteria. I fit those criteria, my chakra network not working properly, making me unable to use genjutsu or ninjutsu, just taijustu. I didn't care, I wanted to prove to myself and to others that I could still make the cut, and so I trained, and trained, and trained. Breaking my bones and bleeding all over myself, I got strong and I overcame all the obstacles in front of me, so your idea of this big genjutsu, it tells me you're _weak_!

"You don't have the resolve or the guts to carry on the struggle and continue fighting for a world of _true _peace, not this stupid lie you'd force on all of us! You want to take the easy way out, an escape from the real problems—your own problems! You're a lazy coward who can't face challenges head-on, and you're content to just run from them with your tail between your legs! I have no respect for people like you, in fact I pity you, but you're threatening _my _friends and _my _village, and I won't just _stand down_ while you destroy our world!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Sixth Kazekage. May he live forever in our memes."

Shin'en cracked his neck. "I suggest someone who knows me and my past sits down and has a very enlightening chat with Shira here, so that he knows just how close I am to popping his head like a grape. Before that happens, I can sense the newfound resolve in the room, and can only conclude that everyone is now ready and willing to fight against the Akatsuki. Any dissidents to that sentiment please speak now or forever hold your peace."

Silence reigned supreme for a solid count of three, all eyes boring into the Ghost of the Bloody Mist, no one backing down or showing any kind of weakness, not even the kids from the Hidden Sand.

Shin'en's eyes slowly transitioned from his standard murky green to a brilliant vermillion. Due to his Eternal Mangekyou being the combination of his nine-pointed star of a Mangekyou, created by three overlapping red triangles, and the nine-pointed star of his alternate sister that he killed during the Battle of Manhattan, forming a tightly packed eighteen-pointed star created by six overlapping triangles spread over the limited space of his iris, his eyes appeared to simply be solid red orbs.

"In light of negotiations having failed, I have no choice but to declare war on you all. The _Fourth Great Ninja War_!"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**And that's a wrap for this chapter. Started it on Friday the 27**__**th**__** of March 2020, and with but sparse writing done over the following weekend, meaning the bulk of these words came from efforts on Monday, Tuesday and today, I cranked out 11k+.**_

_**Praise the Lord.**_

_**I have since figured out how to bring in Madara and Kaguya, and it came to me after I decided to revise a future scene between Shin'en and Itachi, a scene that was going to basically be a mirror between the canonical fight between Sasuke and Itachi.**_

_**College started back up, but the classes aren't going to be as intensive as I thought, so that's good.**_

_**There's probably going to be another chapter after this set in the Naruto-verse, and the chapter after that will be following Persephone, picking up where we left off with her the last time.**_

_**Go refresh your memory if need be.**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Itachi stared dispassionately yet highly alert at the black, man-shaped thing that steadily rose from the earth before him. His Eternal Mangekyou was shining brightly in the night, ready to dispense Amaterasu as soon as he wanted.

"Itachi Uchiha," the plant thing said in a rough, gritty, gravelly voice. "I have a proposition for you."

"Go on."

"I need you to collect a set of eyes for me, and then I need you to serve as a vassal for a short time thereafter. In return for your services, I offer you the life of Shin'en Yūrei."

Itachi's anger visibly flashed across his face at the mention of that man, and the Uchiha was instantly hooked onto whatever he as being offered.

His little brother and all of his bastard nieces and nephews could burn. The whole history of the clan could burn and be forgotten. The village and everyone in it could burn. The world could burn. Hell, Itachi would see the whole universe aflame as long it meant that Shin'en perished painfully in the fire.

"I'm listening."

"Good. This is what I need you to do…"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX


	7. Completion of Project Tsuki no Me

_The Completion of Project Tsuki no Me_

_**You are all amazingly lucky that I forgot what day it was when I posted the last chapter, because you all get to miss my April Fools joke for the year. **_

_**Though maybe the April Fools joke is that there is no joke…0_o**_

_**Anyway, severely disappointed that no one had anything to say regarding Kabuto, the four coffins he brought up, or the scene between Itachi and Zetsu. You guys are bor~ing.**_

_**But I still love all of you.**_

_**Chapter start time: 1:54 PM, CST, 4/2/2020.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or PJO

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Shin'en had scarcely finished declaring war before the Lightning chakra erupted around the Raikage and the muscular man shot forward so fast he crossed the short distance between him and the demigod in less than a microsecond, a cone of air having formed around him. With all that strength and momentum to him, Ei went smashing through the building, Shin'en having dodged with ease.

And thus began the first battle of the new war.

Those demigod reflexes, combined with the precognition of the Eternal Mangekyou—running on _demigod _chakra, not _Indra_'s chakra—and the instinctual avoidance of attacks charged with negative emotions from Satori, bolstered even further by the sensory prowess of the Zero-Tails, made Shin'en a very hard target to hit. It was even more difficult when you weren't even chasing after the _real_ Shin'en, but his favorite little trick of the light.

The Vapor Illusion was something he had to perfect during his handicapped time, when his heart, lungs, and chakra system weren't functioning properly, and the entire technique ran off of his demigod power, though it could be fine-tuned with chakra. It was a simple technique, just using the water droplets in the air as prisms to bend light waves into forming images, but the to the technique was bending all of the light in real time, in a believable manner.

Getting the ends of the cloak to swish in tandem with the movement, and the same for the hair. He had to bounce the water in a way that it caused soundwaves to coincide with touching surfaces. He had to keep the whole shape together—for example, he couldn't have the legs going one way and the head going another, unless that was part of the idea. This technique was actually rather hard to do, just because of how much thought and detail was required to believably pull it off.

Still, Shin'en managed with expert efficiency, having sharpened his mind through years of training and discipline, resulting in very powerful, very potent Yin chakra.

He did appreciate the redundancy and humor in the situation, though, watching the Kage and their bodyguards flounder as his little trick simply weaved and dodged through them like a ballerina. Shin'en's purpose here was two-fold: make an honest to God effort to avoid worldwide hostilities just for Naruko's sake, and if that failed, move certain pieces into place with his Sharingan, which he had done.

Perhaps the most productive and important part of the one-year training time was all the experiments Shin'en and Obito had performed in regards to the Sharingan, particularly its ability to cast genjutsu with just a look. What they had proven, using Hidan as their favorite guinea pig, was that on the light waves being reflected off the Sharingan itself was chakra.

The Sharingan was _emitting _chakra, which was, as they had discovered, one of the reasons why non-Uchiha using the eye were so drained, because their systems weren't adapted to the strain of having chakra constantly leaking from their eyeballs; Shin'en was an obvious exception due to the quantity and potency of his chakra.

It was because of this emission that all it took was a single glance into a person's eyes to screw up their chakra network, inducing genjutsu, because the chakra-laced light waves coming from the Sharingan were going right through the pupil, using it as a focusing lens directly to the brain, directly to the nervous system. It was because of this ocular transmission that other doujutsu, most notably the Byakugan, were able to "see" through genjutsu.

Their eyes were emitting counter waves to all of the altered light being filtered around them, either from direct ocular genjutsu, or from environmental genjutsu, such as the one seen during the beginning of the Chunin Exam when the number of the door was altered.

After confirming that the Sharingan induced genjutsu via chakra riding along the light waves, further experiments were conducted in regards to whether the target had to know if they were looking at a Sharingan or not, like if there was a pair of sunglasses on over the eyes, or a set of colored contact lenses.

It was determined that _no_, such mediums did not inhibit the ocular effects of the Sharingan.

Of course, when it was confirmed that chakra was riding on the light waves, Shin'en had instantly incorporated that into his Vapor Illusions, bending the light coming from his eyes through the air using the water droplets directly into his target's eyes, effectively making him able to cast ocular genjutsu without even having to look at you.

It was really funny to watch Deidara and Hidan freak out when suddenly a pair of Sharingan appeared in their vision.

On further experimentation with blocking mediums, Shin'en had confirmed that, even if he was bending the light waves of his eyes to make them appear different colors—though the only color he was ever going to use was his natural emerald green—the genjutsu effects were as potent as ever, which was why this whole little episode with the Kage was redundant.

He was using a Vapor Illusion, when everyone here was already under his genjutsu thanks to the fact that his Eternal Mangekyou had been active from the start.

All of that dramatic eye contact in the previous chapter was Shin'en using inscription genjutsu, layering in program after program, set to activate either at a chakra pulse or in lieu of circumstances befitting the program.

It was the same thing he had done to his sister, only on a much broader scale this time around.

On a side note, while Shin'en was busy entertaining the Kage and others of varying significance, the Akatsuki was on the move. With some of the world's most powerful players here in the Land of Iron, that left other locations just that much more vulnerable. Of course, since the Akatsuki's main goal was to avoid war and outright conflict altogether, they were still keeping to those objectives by _not_ laying waste to the villages, or at the very least delivering crippling blows in the wake of the start of the Fourth Great Ninja War.

Instead, Hidan and Kakuzu were currently attacking the Fire Temple with the objective being to capture the pseudo-Jinchuuriki Sora, who was confirmed to have Nine-Tails chakra Sealed inside him, and (hopefully) had enough Yin _and _Yang Nine-Tails chakra to satisfy the requirements for resurrecting the Ten-Tails. If he didn't, then the Akatsuki was going to have to revive the Gold and Silver Brothers of the Hidden Cloud, who had died during the Second Great Ninja War, though not before being swallowed alive by Kurama prior to the First War, surviving in the Beasts' belly for two weeks by eating away at his stomach before being regurgitated.

Kurama still got angry every time the Brothers were mentioned.

The whole point of Sora and the Brothers was to avoid having to use Minato, on behalf of courtesy to Naruko, and using Naruko herself, something that was absolutely not going to happen on account of her pregnancy. Shin'en would blow the planet up and everyone on it before it was even _considered_ to use Naruko for the Gedo Statue.

So, while Naruko was safe in the Hidden Rain with Nagato and Konan keeping watch over her, and Kakuzu and Hidan were retrieving Sora, and Shin'en was playing with the Kage, the rest of the Akatsuki, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Tobi and Zetsu, were on the way to the idiotic hideout that was the Island Turtle, affectionately referred to as Genbu by those of the Hidden Cloud, where the Jinchuuriki and other high-power Cloud shinobi went to train. It was there that Yugito and Killer Bee were residing in the wake of Minato's summons regarding the Akatsuki and the brief information therein about the organization's goals of capturing Jinchuuriki, and Shin'en knew because A) he knew about Genbu from his time training in the Cloud a lifetime ago, and B) his very unfair prophetic dreams.

However, something that was very concerning to Shin'en was that in all these years, he _still _had no idea who this "princess" Susano'o mentioned over ten years ago was supposed to be, other than that she was the mother of Hagoromo and Hamura, nor could he see how the Akatsuki's mission would turn out. Truthfully, Shin'en was less worried about the mission and more about this unknown princess, because for those that have forgotten, this princess was the sole reason Shin'en had been stolen from the hospital minutes after he was born.

There was also the information he had that the princess absorbed the Divine Tree and became the Ten-Tails, which the Akatsuki was reviving, but he was firm in the knowledge that the princess was either dead, or her consciousness was floating around somewhere.

Which was why _he_ was going to be the Jinchuuriki to cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

And, as per the very name of this story, he had backup plans ready to go in the event that things went sideways.

So, in brief summary of the above paragraphs, Shin'en had the Kage and their bodyguards unwittingly under his genjutsu thanks to information regarding experimentation with the Sharingan, Naruko was safe in the Rain Village under the protection of Konan and Nagato, Kakuzu and Hidan were capturing the pseudo-Jinchuuriki Sora at the Fire Temple, and Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Tobi, and Zetsu were capturing Yugito and Killer Bee.

As for Shin'en, his objective was complete. The Kage and their body guards were programmed with inscription genjutsu, the programs set to pass on to anybody they made eye contact with, the idea behind this maneuver being to steadily infect enough people that all Shin'en had to do was make a Hand Seal and effectively neutralize the planet, thereby enabling the Akatsuki to complete Project Tsuki no Me without any interference. Since he was done here, Shin'en could simply cancel his Vapor Illusion and use his divine water travel ability to teleport to his fiancé's side, or ensure successful capture of any of the Jinchuuriki, but no.

You see, Shin'en hated shinobi. He hated their underhanded tactics, their penchant for lies and subterfuge; he appreciated how hypocritical that made him, hating the way of ninja yet his go-to engagement tactic was to use illusions and end the fight with his ocular genjutsu. Thinking of hypocrisy reminded Shin'en of his conversations with Asteria, Annabeth, Gabe, and Hunter, particularly those of religion.

It was one of Hunter's favorite things to point out scripture in the Bible that commanded Christians to always be kind and loving towards all people, regardless of their attitude and behavior towards you, and forgive them for their trespasses, and then match that up against how he, a Christian himself that went to the same Sunday School with the other three, was always cursing people at the store for interrupting him, cursing slow-moving students in the hallway, cursing slow-moving traffic, even cursing his parents behind his door. Hunter wasn't even shy about making his contempt for illegal immigrants known, nor his disgust for the LGBT in general.

"That's very un-Christian-like behavior," Shin'en had once stated flatly, leaning neither one way nor the other.

"True, true," Hunter had grinned, the same manic gleam in his eye that Amelia typically had, "but, human beings, by our flawed nature, are hypocrites."

Annabeth would always counter than sentiment with a statement along the lines of how they were supposed to be better than that, and how they were supposed to put forth the effort to be better. Amelia would always take an approach to the matter in similar fashion to Hunter, and Gabe really wouldn't take sides.

Only having been introduced to the Christian life-style that very year by Hunter's unrelenting badgering to get the young man to come to Sunday School, Gabe hadn't possessed enough Biblical knowhow to construct any kind of argument to take a side, so he stayed out.

It was a damn shame that he, Hunter, and their other two friends had died during the Christmas Break thanks to a drunk driver that plowed into them head-on in a dually equipped with a full front bumper.

Thinking of his brief time in high school brought a nostalgic smile to Shin'en's face.

Standing from the bench he was sitting on in the conference room, alone thanks to the fact that he had everyone chasing his little light trick, Shin'en popped his neck. The only people he had been able to engage in a fight for the past year was the Akatsuki and Naruko. While certainly enough to get the blood pumping, fighting the same people over and over again got boring, and quickly became an inaccurate measurement of strength.

What Shin'en had before him was a ripe opportunity to really test how strong he had become.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Kage all liked to think they had Shin'en cornered here in this humongous chamber with the massive pillars after chasing him through the halls, but not really.

"It's over, Shin'en," Minato declared. "We have you outnumbered and outmatched. You've put up a good run, but it's time you surrendered."

"You certainly have me outnumbered, but outmatched? Are you forgetting how I blew up your cute little prison cell just last week, the one designed to keep something like the Nine-Tails weak as a puppy, with a just a single burst of chakra? Minato," Shin'en shook his head in disappointment, "at any moment I can lay waste to this world, but for the sake of your daughter I choose not to. But I digress."

The Shin'en before the Kage steadily faded from sight, and it was both Mei and Ei that realized what this was.

"We've been had!" the Raikage bellowed, recognizing the water-based illusion that Shin'en had been practicing since he was eight.

"That is correct, sir."

Ei whirled around just in time to take a punch square in his face that left his nose bleeding and his face aching, and enough force was transferred into him that he was sent rocketing away through the wall with a mighty crash. While he was travelling, Shin'en had his sword out, the five-foot long sleek black staff going through the air to whack Omoi, and then going around again to whack Karui, upside their heads, sending them flying away also.

Though they were unconscious and had concussions, whereas the Raikage was just pissed off.

Chojuro, one of the last loyal Seven Swordsmen, with Zabuza being left in the Mist due to his power so that he could protect the village, and also so that his lack of tact wouldn't compromise the summit meeting, expelled chakra from his fabled blade, the very ugly Hiramekarei, and that chakra took on the vague shape of a humongous hammer, which was swung at Shin'en with everything the young Jonin had.

The demigod let it slam into him, cloaking himself in a bit of chakra, and Chojuro's sword was knocked clean from his hands due to the backlash. Shin'en eyed the bespeckled swordsman, who chuckled nervously. With a raise of his brow, Shin'en had Chojuro scrambling to get his weapon and bolt out of the way as the Raikage came back in, this time shrouded in the Lightning Armor.

Shin'en activated his own Lightning Armor, his being the same emerald green as his eyes, as opposed to Ei's blue-themed jutsu. The Raikage wailed on Shin'en, darting around all over the place, landing punches and kicks, causing sounds like thunder to fill the halls, cracks to form on the ground. The thing was that Shin'en wasn't budging, or even flinching. There wasn't a mark on him, or anything to even suggest he was being attacked.

With a roar, Ei drew his fist back and rammed it forward so fast there was a sonic boom. Shin'en took the sonic punch to the face and didn't so much as twitch, though the wall several dozen feet behind him collapsed outward with a thunderous rumble.

"What the hell!?"

"It's simple," Shin'en said. "Chakra emulates natural properties. Lightning chakra, through Yin and Yang releases, mimics positive and negative charges. All I have to do is match whatever charge you've got, and the chakra surrounding us will simply repel each other. You can hit me as hard as you want with that jutsu, you'll never do any damage to me."

"That means you can't damage me, either."

"Not with this jutsu, anyway."

Shin'en's eyes glowed from behind his Lightning Armor, and Ei dodged as two laser beams went flying. However, Shin'en knew that the Raikage would dodge, and was instead actually aiming for the two Sand kunoichi, who did _not_ dodge, and they both took a laser each to the solar plexus that had them blasted backward, not possessing enough speed and reflex to avoid the jutsu, nor enough chakra to defend themselves.

Shin'en could've put enough juice into that to completely destroy their bodies, but instead he had shown mercy, downgrading the laser to mere blunt force. _Hot_ blunt force, enough to burn holes through the girls' clothes and leave burns, but only so much to shock their diaphragms to the point that they lost consciousness due to suffocation.

Not that such a distinction from that and death was made by Shira, who howled as he immediately assumed the worst. He turned to Shin'en, eyes full of fury and hate.

"Seven Heavenly Breaths: First Activation!"

For those that are very confused, Shira is an anime-only character whose basically Rock Lee if he was born in the Land of Wind. Shira can't use ninjutsu or genjutsu, only taijustu, and he faced scorn and discrimination from his peers for it, and so he threw himself into training, becoming stronger to prove himself, and made friends out of Sen and Yumi, his two kunoichi friends. Shira became so proficient in taijustu that he created his own technique, the Seven Heavenly Breaths, which, in the simplest terms, is a knockoff of the Eight Inner Gates, only relying on very impressive breathing as opposed to chakra.

All eyes were now on Shira, the present shinobi and samurai all curious to see what the newest Kage could do. Upon his "first activation," Shira's eyes went blank white and a yellow aura erupted around him, blasting wind and dust all over the place.

"Second Activation!"

Shira's muscles suddenly expanded, fat instantly burning off him.

"Third Activation!"

His skin turned an angry red, his muscle getting even bigger.

"Fourth Activation!"

Now his hair was rooted straight up, and not in an impressive manner; it just looked stupid. His muscles once again increased in size, this time getting so big that his bracers on his forearms busted and his shirt and pants became strained.

"Fifth Activation!"

With your standard mounting groan featured in anime power-up scenes, Shira got even bigger, his shirt being shred to ribbons—though his pants miraculously held—and the aura around got even wilder, the stone floor around his feet cracking and buckling, little piece rising into the air and then being broke apart into dust by how much power was being released by the angry Shira.

It was also apparent that this technique had an affect on the mental state.

"Shira strongest there is!" the Kazekage yelled. "Shira smash emo girly boy!"

Despite the situation, Mei couldn't stop the snort that escaped her, and Shin'en's eyes flicked to her, promising retribution later, which made her gulp. The demigod looked back at Shira, who was now about three inches from his face, and he stepped to the side as the Kazekage blasted a hole through the wall and kept going.

"Is anyone else simultaneously impressed and disappointed?"

There were nods of agreement with Shin'en's assessment.

Shira came rocketing back onto the scene, and the chase was on. To the samurai and those bodyguards not strong enough, all they saw were streaks of light darting around the whole chamber, gouges and crevices appearing in the wakes. To the Kage, they could just barely see Shin'en and Shira, the demigod keeping a modest three feet of distance between him and the enraged Kazekage, backpedaling.

Tremors and howling winds filled the chamber as Shira raced after Shin'en, up and down and all around the venue as the demigod tested his speed against that of the Kazekage's. The other Kage didn't interfere because they were watching, planning. They also didn't know each other's fighting style's well enough to all attack at once; the lack of coordination could easily spell doom for any of them, especially with Ohnoki's Particle Style being able to vaporize any that were caught in the technique.

Ohnoki himself was enjoying the show, this being the first time he had ever seen Shin'en in action.

The demigod himself finally had enough information regarding his current exercise to determine that with the Lightning Armor, he was faster than Shira using his Seven Heavenly Breaths: Fifth Activation—obviously he had two more levels to go, but considering how impaired his was already, he must've realized that using all seven, at his current level, would probably cause irreparable damage to himself, and so he didn't push. Rather disappointing, considering he was running off the impression that his friends were dead.

Oh, well.

Shin'en stopped suddenly, Shira's eyes going wide as he unceremoniously took a titanium bicep to the face in the form of a textbook clothesline, being caught completely off guard by the sudden change in situation, and not in possession of enough mental faculties to have predicted its happening. As it was, with his incredible speed and Shin'en's incredible strength, Shira broke his neck.

He didn't _die_, but he wasn't going to be feeling anything below his Adam's Apple without some serious medical help.

Like the kind of help Tsunade was applying to Omoi, Karui, Sen, and Yumi under the watchful protection of Sage Mode Jiraiya.

Shira's unconscious form went skipping across the ground, but he was intercepted by a generous Ao who saved him from smashing through a wall and from further physical harm. Shira was taken to Tsunade by the Hidden Mist Jonin Commander, who knew he didn't have anywhere near the strength required to fight Shin'en, just like Chojuro knew it about himself. So, the battalion of shinobi that numbered at fifteen, the five Kage and their two bodyguards each, was just down to six.

Minato, Mei, Ohnoki, Ei, Kurotsuchi and Akatsuchi.

"Raikage, I'm disappointed in you. So many years of practice with the Lightning Armor, and you never knew that weakness?"

Ei just growled, secretly embarrassed.

"Or is it that you knew that weakness and simply forgot it because you're the only person besides me that knows how to use the technique?"

Ei's growl got even louder.

"Ain't that a shame." Shin'en spread his arms at the shinobi, Lightning Armor still crackling around him. "Well then, Five…er, _Four_ Kage…what now? What tricks have you placed up your sleeves while I was entertaining Shaniqua—whoops, sorry, I mean Shira." Shin'en cleared his throat, toying with the most powerful ninja in the world that weren't rogue criminals.

"So, what plans have you made to take me down, hm? Come on, make your move…" Blood vessels popped along his sclera, and the Kage got concerned for their opponent's sanity.

"Come on…hurry up…_hurry_!" Shin'en grinned maniacally. "Give me a _hug_!"

Everyone stared disbelievingly at the demigod.

"_Boo_."

Kurotsuchi shrieked when the voice came right next to he ear, and everyone turned to see that Shin'en was standing right there, right in their midst, but they could all feel the chakra radiating from him _over there_.

"It's just another illusion," Minato decided. "Shin'en!" he called.

"Yes?"

"Die!"

At the word, a Sealing formula suddenly lit up around Shin'en, and tracing the lines, using his hydrokinesis, he tracked the origin to tags that were placed on the various pillars. The effects of the Seal were instant, rendering Shin'en paralyzed, rooted, and unable to get his chakra to move.

'_He must've set this up before I crashed the party.'_

Minato was smirking to himself. _'I'm glad I had the forethought to set this up before the meeting started.'_

Ohnoki spread his hands and a glowing, transparent cube with a brightly glowing sphere in the middle appeared. "You've had a good run, kid, but it's time to say goodbye. Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu."

From the time that the Seal activated to when the jutsu encased Shin'en, it was only half a second. The Seal worked just enough, it was just sudden enough and its effects just strong enough for that crucial half-second that it was enough to root Shin'en in place for Ohnoki's jutsu to strike home. The sphere glowed brightly and instantly expanded, being contained in the cube. When the glow faded and the cube vanished, Shin'en was not there.

"Where did he go?" Mei asked.

"Gone," Ohnoki said. "Reduced to atoms."

There was a tense moment as everyone waited to see if the universe was going to screw them, and after breaths were held for five seconds, there was relief.

"I can't believe that actually worked," Minato said.

Akatsuchi pointed at something, and everyone followed his finger to the far wall. Transfixed, everyone watched as the wall was just peeled backward to reveal the broad, fair-skinned face of a man.

"Are you sure about that?"

Everyone looked at each other, confused, and when they looked back at the wall, it was a wall again.

"Who was that?" Kurotsuchi asked.

"_IT'S JOHN CENA!"_

The voice boomed from everywhere, bringing everyone to their knees with hands over their ears from the sheer volume of the cry. The music that played immediately after was somehow even louder, shaking their brains in their skulls, and then it just abruptly stopped.

"What was _that_?" Shin'en casually asked. "The PA system? Very peculiar, don't you think?"

"Yeah," Minato groaned, and then his eyes popped open when he realized who had spoken and how close they were to him.

In an instinctual act, he grabbed a kunai from his pocket and slashed at Shin'en's throat. The demigod dodged, but Minato didn't let up, producing a second tri-pronged kunai, going onto the attack. During the slashing, Shin'en noticed how Minato's eyes changed: orange rings appeared around his lids, his pupils changed into horizontal bars, and his blue irises turned yellow.

Minato had entered Sage Mode not just on the move, but on the attack.

Shin'en had terrific experience with Sage Mode, since he had spent the better part of a year training with a girl that was an expert practitioner of the art, and so he knew the ins and outs of the technique. Increased physical range, drastically increased physical strength, all elemental jutsu had an extra kick to them, and if you didn't balance the mixture between your chakra and the nature chakra, you would turn into a toad statue.

Shin'en wasn't sure _why_ you would turn into a toad statue as opposed to just a statue, nor was he sure why Sage Mode made one look like a toad in the first place, or why Hashirama could use Sage Mode without gaining any toad-like features at all. Honestly, this Sage Mode thing _really_ needed some better explanations to it.

Regardless, Shin'en found himself having to strafe further backwards as he avoided Minato's attacks, keeping his third eye focused on the others. Jiraiya was gathering nature chakra, Tsunade was releasing the Reserve Seal on her forehead, the ones under her immediate care having been stabilized enough to where the samurai were able to remove them; Mei, Ohnoki, and Ei were hanging back, the Tsuchikage having ordered his two underlings to go with the samurai, the Mizukage having done the same, since not a single one of those bodyguards had a snowball's chance in Hell against Shin'en, considering he was running the Kage ragged without much effort.

Minato made a move, but Shin'en countered, having seen it with the precognition of the Eternal Mangekyou, and the two were locked in a tangle of arms.

"Fourth Hokage, you disappoint me. The world holds in such high esteem…" Shin'en smiled. "Surely you can do better!"

With a grunt, Minato broke the lock and went back to punching and kicking, and Shin'en decided to actually engage instead of merely dodging around. He blocked the taijustu assault, demonstrating martial arts ability that would've had the likes of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Chuck Norris rapidly scribbling notes. Granted, he and Minato were superhumans by our standards, but this was all for the sake of fun, after all.

Unlike Sasori's wooden body that was impervious to pain, Shin'en was flesh and blood, and the Sage Mode-enhanced blows of Minato were actually being felt by the brother of Persephone…though not in the respect that they were leaving bruises. Naruko hit a whole lot harder than her dad did.

Shin'en could also tell that Minato was getting frustrated, and not just by his empathic abilities; it was written all over the man's face. All his power, all his drive to avenge his village and save his daughter, all of his training and experience, and he couldn't even take down a seventeen-year-old kid.

"Kid" was a bit inaccurate though. Considering the average lifespan was 36, Shin'en was effectively middle-aged and Minato was effectively elderly, being in his 40's.

Relief came for Minato in the next three seconds.

"Sage Art: Rasengan!"

'_What is it with these people and announcing what they're doing?' _Shin'en thought irritably to himself as Jiraiya came down from high above, brandishing a swirling ball of chakra bigger than a one-story house.

The hermit missed, obviously, but he kicked up a sizeable amount of debris.

This poor venue chamber was about to collapse, having not been made with the idea in mind that it going to host a battle between S-rank ninja.

As Shin'en dodged, he wasn't surprised to find the Tsunade was mere feet from him. Obviously, Jiraiya's attack had been meant as a diversion, its purpose being to get Shin'en to move, so that the Slug Sannin could move to intercept. Judging by how much chakra was being contained in that fist of hers, enough to where the balled hand was glowing, her attack was meant to be a type of final attack.

Shin'en felt the vapor in the air move, and he felt the water in the bodies of Minato and Jiraiya move, and it was with no small amount of disgust that Shin'en watched as a pair of super-long tongues wrapped around his waist, their intention being to keep him in place for Tsunade's punch.

In the proceeding second between the tongues and Tsunade's fist making contact, Shin'en reviewed the list of things he could do to avoid any kind of outstanding damage.

He could liquefy in the same manner of the Hozuki clan, and the offending fist would be completely harmless. He could water travel and avoid the fist completely. He could use Substitution Jutsu, with there being plenty of material with all the rocks and rubble everywhere. He could use any combination of his own power-ups, such as the Lightning Armor, the Dark Chakra-based Body Activation Jutsu, which would enable him complete access to all Eight Gates without fear of permanent damage, and of course, Demigod Mode.

Using Demigod Mode required a trip down an emotional rabbit hole that he didn't like going down because it always left him weird afterward.

There were two other options, that being his Susano'o, and the final option, this one being the one to bring about the most pain and probably a decent amount of injury, but the shock factor thereafter would be so worth it.

Shin'en stood there and let Tsunade punch him right in the middle of his face at her full power.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The Kage and the Sannin went racing through all the holes in the samurai fortress's walls to the outside world, and followed the trench in the snow, passing over dozens of broken trees until they got to where Shin'en was laying. Ironically, he was gently propped up against a tree, having hit it just hard enough to where he was halfway buried in a snowbank.

To give credit to Tsunade's power, though it should be kept in mind that Shin'en did nothing to protect his face other than let his chakra flow naturally through his coils, the demigod's face was a brutal, unrecognizable mess of bloated flesh and blood. It wasn't his ruined face that had everyone staring in shock, but his blood.

The color.

It wasn't _red_.

It was a shade of _orange_, as if someone had mixed his blood with a little bit of liquid gold.

"Is he…dead?" Mei hazarded, a strange whirlwind of emotions tumbling around inside of her at the prospect of the boy she had damned actually no longer being among the living.

Her answer came when the snow erupted around everyone, engulfing them in frigid, white coffins, leaving only their faces visible. Only Minato and Ei escaped, through the Flying Thunder God and the Lightning Armor, both of which were just pure instinctual reactions. A little bit of snow moved to Shin'en's face, covering it, and the snow started to twitch and convulse, as if alive.

Soon enough, the snow moved, revealing a completely unblemished face.

"Ouch," Shin'en said simply. "Had we not been in an environment teeming with frozen water, I might've had something of a minor problem regarding facial reconstruction." His eyes slid over to the horrified Tsunade. "Kudos to you, _Granny_. You actually did some damage."

Shin'en lit a cigarette and took a drag. "Now, what am I going to do with two Sannin and two Kage?"

The Raikage answered the question by appearing in a flash of lightning, and he tossed two massive handfuls of Minato's tri-pronged kunai in no definitive pattern, and the teleportation devices went everywhere.

"Kura Okami."

For those that forgot, the Mangekyou ability of Shin'en's right eye was the Kura Okami, the anti-Amaterasu. Where the Amaterasu took the form of black fire reputed to be as hot as the Sun, the Kura Okami entered the world as a white, howling wind cold enough to reduce anything to zero Kelvin—to absolute zero.

When something hit absolute zero, the very atoms _stopped_ moving. No vibration, no shaking, no rubbing—the electrons weren't even bouncing around down in there at absolute zero.

With so much practice on Hidan and combat in general, Shin'en could use his Mangekyou with pinpoint accuracy, hitting specific targets in motion, small ones, big ones, low speeds, high speeds…such as a bunch of kunai thrown by a juggernaut with incredible strength. Granted, the limit of the Kura Okami was whatever Shin'en could see in his eye's visual range, so there were actually five kunai that made it past him, the others being frozen and subsequently shattered.

Predictably, as the kunai started to move past Shin'en, Minato started teleporting between them, displaying just how fast he really was. In respect of just how dangerous this technique really was, Shin'en had to direct all his attention to keeping up with the Hokage, and so his grip on the snow vanished. However, with how fast Minato was going, and that Shin'en was keeping up with all the teleporting, everything else appeared to be at a standstill.

There was a Sealing tag in the man's hand, and Shin'en couldn't tell what it was going to do, and so he kept rapt attention on the Hokage, and the Hokage realized it.

Closer and closer came Minato's hand with the tag, closer and closer…

Shin'en moved, his hand snapping out for the throat, his other hand going for the offending wrist.

Just before his hands made contact, Minato, instead of using his Flying Thunder God, instead went with something a lot more basic: Substitution. One of the kunai and the Yellow Flash crossed through time and space as they switched positions in the gaseous medium, the ensuing smoke going right into Shin'en's lungs, and it was enough of a distraction to where Minato was able to slap that tag onto the demigod.

Or he would've been able to, if his hand didn't go right through the body like it wasn't even there.

Not even pausing to try and figure that out, Minato teleported to the kunai that was still with the Raikage, thinking he was out of dodge.

Shin'en phased back into the visible plane, still calmly smoking.

"Let me guess," Minato said. "What we saw lying at the tree was another one your Vapor Illusions."

"That is correct," Shin'en intoned. "Though the damage you saw was indeed real. Congratulations are in order, Slug Sannin."

"Go fuck yourself," Tsunade hissed.

"Uh, no. Your granddaughter takes care of that for me."

Despite there being several feet of snow on the ground, it somehow just got a little bit colder.

"Granddaughter?" Ohnoki asked.

"Yes, granddaughter." Shin'en smiled. "Jiraiya and Tsunade of the Sannin, some of the very, very few people in this world to see their grandchild, and members of a club comprised of so far fewer people that get to be alive at least for the conception of their greatgrandchild…play nice and you'll get to at least hold one of the kids."

"_Kids_?" Jiraiya squawked.

"Yes, plural. Naruko is carrying a boy and a girl. Twins."

"She's not even visibly pregnant yet," Tsunade protested. "How can you possibly tell the sex of the fetuses?"

"Demigod. Pathway to many abilities. Unnatural." Shin'en was doing is absolute best to maintain a straight face. "The same way I can tell what babies we're having is the same way I can tell that you are Jiraiya are Minato's parents."

If the Hokage was bothered by any of this, he was doing a good job of not showing it.

While everyone was looking at the Sannin, Shin'en received a communication vis his ring.

_We have the Jinchuuriki._

_Understood. I'm wrapping things up with the Kage, and I'll rendezvous at our nearest hideout for the Sealing._

Shin'en took a long drag from the cigarette, burning the whole thing up in one breath, and released a thick cloud of smoke from his nose. In conjunction with his red eyes, it created quite the image. It also had the desired effect of redirecting everyone's attention to him.

"Kage, Sannin, I find myself incredibly bored. Instead of outright killing of you and calling it a day, I deigned to at least give you a fighting a chance. More to see how far I've come than anything else, and apparently I've come too far. You and you don't have near enough physical prowess to keep up with me, you're a one-trick pony whose trick I can nullify, and the three of you don't have enough speed. So, it is with immeasurable disappointment that I make clear just how far apart in terms of power we really are…"

Shin'en's Mangekyou glowed so bright they were almost blinding, but it was the eruption of emerald chakra that sent the Kage and the Sannin flying away. It wasn't an Awakening, that would've leveled the whole country, but what Shin'en brought out could be argued as being just below that kind of destructive power.

"What the hell…is that…thing…?" Mei managed, her mouth barely working.

"The Perfect Susano'o," Minato answered. "Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha can use this same thing. But theirs is smaller."

"How much smaller?"

Minato's neck hurt he had to crane it back far enough to actually see how far up Shin'en went.

"A lot."

"How can we beat this thing?"

Minato didn't answer, because it took a whole lot of _stuff_ to bring down Sasuke or Itachi's ultimate offensive and defensive jutsu, but it was clear that Shin'en was multiple cuts above the Uchiha, his chakra stronger, and he had more of it than the brothers—hell, Minato was pretty sure Shin'en had more chakra than several Tailed-Beasts combined.

_Way _more than the full Nine-Tails, anyway, and probably more than what Minato thought he had.

Truth be told, Minato wasn't sure any kind of chakra-reading technology could accurately report just how much juice was running through Shin'en's body.

"This isn't even the worst part!" the demigod called down from on high, safe within the hexagonal jewel on his Perfect Susano'o's forehead, just underneath the biggest of the thirteen horns that adorned the chakra construct's forehead plate.

Minato, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Ei, Ohnoki, and Mei could only stare in horror, the ground rumbling beneath them, as _five_ more of Shin'en's emerald colored Perfect Susano'o rose to height around the Land of Iron, seemingly towering above the mountains.

As scared as everyone suddenly was, there were none more scared than the Leaf shinobi. They had all seen the power just _one_ of these things had, and that was just one belonging to the Uchiha. One belonging to the demigod was bound to be far more destructive. Not just that, but there were _multiple_ warriors having joined the fray. Sasuke and Itachi _could not_ make multiple Perfect Susano'o. As much chakra as their own took to create and maintain, they couldn't make any kind of Clone that had enough chakra in it to do the same, so for Shin'en to have made _six_ was a horrifying thing.

"Grandfather," Tsunade whimpered, "I think you've been surpassed…"

"Play nice, children," Shin'en said.

The wings on his Susano'o's back deployed, blotting out the sky they were so huge, and with a flap so mighty and powerful that it kicked up a blizzard, Shin'en was off, flying into the atmosphere and out of sight of everyone below due to the low hanging soup of grey clouds. Once visibility was zero to the ground, Shin'en cut off his Susano'o and vanished in a swirl of water.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Just a little before sunset, there were only two Jinchuuriki in the whole world, and they were hosts of one half of the same Tailed-Beast so whether that counted as one or two was up for debate. Luckily, it turned out that Sora the monk contained enough chakra in him that the reviving of the Gold and Silver brothers was not necessary.

The only thing's left were the final preparations for the resurrection, since the Kage had returned to their villages, alive by way of nothing but mercy, and Shin'en's genjutsu was rapidly making its way through the world populace.

With the Sealing over, before the bodies of Yugito and Bee could unceremoniously hit the ground, Shin'en intercepted them. Sora's body landed with no such mercy. In fact, Shin'en didn't even look at him as he exited the cave hideout, heading for the nearby lake.

He gently placed the bodies of two of his most beloved people—that were still alive—down at the edge of the lake. In the fading light of the sun, the water appeared to be gold, streaked with oranges and reds at the opposite bank. Yugito and Bee were most certainly dead, but they hadn't been so for even a minute. It was a lot easier to pull this off when the body was so freshly dead that it didn't stink yet.

Shin'en drew the water to the former Jinchuuriki, and with it, gave the bodies all they needed to get going again. Blood flow, a forcefully contracting diaphragm to draw in oxygen, a beating heart, and enough electricity to kickstart the brain.

Yugito bolted upright first, Bee coming to with a groan. The blonde looked around wildly, her last conscious thoughts being of heavy combat, and the first thing she saw was a black cloak with red clouds, and she zeroed in for the attack. Yugito attempted to kick things off with one of Jinchuuriki jutsu, but instantly found out that the Two-Tails was no longer…there.

"I didn't make any breakfast this time," Shin'en said in a _very _uncharacteristically small voice, "but I do have a tuna sandwich."

Yugito stared at him, her eyes wide and her pupils dilated. Her mouth tried to work, wide open, but her jaws was just twitching open and closed. She couldn't believe what she was seeing, didn't know if this was the afterlife or a trick or real, and it was with slow, trembling hands that she reached out and gently, gingerly touched Shin'en's cheeks, afraid that physical contact would dispel whatever illusion this might be.

But Shin'en didn't go anywhere. In fact, based on his reddening, watery eyes, he was trying very hard not to cry.

Yugito tried not to cry, but she completely lost it and flung herself around Shin'en, sobbing loud enough to scare away the nearby wildlife. Tear began to steadily fall from Shin'en's own eyes as, for the first time in over four years, he was reunited with the closest thing he had to a mother in his life.

Sally was biological, but he had only ever actually been with her once. The orphanage matron was certainly a grandmother, and Sukina and Yūwaku were big sister, and big sister/crazy aunt, respectively. Yugito, however, had been with him for his seventh and eight birthdays, leaving for a year-long mission during his ninth year, and she had been there to see him off on his tenth birthday. When he got back from the Blood War, it was her that he went to, and when he had gone insane and was subsequently handicapped, it was disappointing her that had stung the most, above all else.

He had made meals with Yugito, sat at her table, waited up all night for her to return from wherever she was at. He had helped her do the laundry, wash the dishes, vacuum the floors, clean the kitchen and the bathrooms, and he had gone to the grocery store with her. He had trained with Yugito, learned how to throw kunai, shuriken, and senbon, spared, often violently, and he had made jokes at her expense.

As much as it would hurt Sally, based on what he had felt and what he was feeling now, Shin'en finally confirmed that it was Yugito that he loved most as his mother.

"I-I've missed you, M-Mom."

Yugito cried even louder at hearing that.

Bee eventually came over and wrapped his humongous arms around them. His glasses had fallen off at some point, revealing that his eyes weren't some weird abnormality, but just simple black ones typical of those that lived in the Land of Lightning. He was crying too.

When everyone had calmed enough to the point that they could talk, instead of spending hours catching up on the past few years, Shin'en merely used his Sharingan to _show_ them so many events. Feel free to reread _Backup Plan _and _Backup Plan: Blood War_ to refresh your memory on what those events are.

Included in that download were the specifics of Project Tsuki no Me, the cause behind its implementation, and its predicted effects.

Also predictably was that Yugito and Bee were not on board with the idea of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, which was why Shin'en had layered in a simple sleep genjutsu in his memory thing. With a Hand Seal and a heavy heart, he put the two in a light coma. Regret and self-loathing filled him at what he did: they were kidnapped and then killed, their lifelong partners being ripped out of their bodies, and then they had been revived by and reunited with the boy they loved like a son and a nephew, only to be told about his plan for world peace, and after voicing their opposition, were both knocked out by said boy's own genjutsu.

Shin'en let out a painful, shuddering breath.

"I take it that they weren't okay with our Project?" Obito asked, his mask off.

The Gedo Statue was beginning to mature, the Tailed-Beast chakra roiling around inside of it, becoming whole once again, though this was all very well contained inside the hideout. All the other members had flown off with Deidara, making haste for the Hidden Rain, where Pain would simply summon the statue, and after it finally finished its transformation into the Ten-Tails, it would be Sealed into Shin'en so he could cast the genjutsu.

Naruko was going to be kept safe in the deepest, darkest room the Hidden Rain had to offer so that none of the chakra-laden light bouncing off the Moon could ensnare her in the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

"No," Shin'en said shortly.

"Ironic, isn't it? The world cries for peace and for an end to the bloodshed, but when we offer them a totally painless solution, one that didn't even need blood thanks to your powers, they instead reject us. We ask the world of they want peace, and the tell us _Well yes, but actually no_."

"Irrelevant, at this point. The Gedo Statue has what it needs, and there's no viable way for anyone to stop us. Only the Leaf knew that we were operating out of the Hidden Rain, and even if we faced an all-out assault from the Five Great Nations, we have enough power amongst ourselves to hold them at bay until the Gedo Statue is done."

"That is isn't what's bothering you."

Shin'en and Obito would hardly call each other friends, they barely considered themselves comrades, but they did have a deep understanding of each other, enough to where the powerful Uchiha could read enough of Shin'en to know that the young man was troubled by something that he wasn't putting to words.

Shin'en exhaled slowly. "You know Naruko and I are going to leave here and join my sister in the world that I was born in. Naruko wants to bring her father, her mother, little brother, first and foremost, and would like to bring all of her friends with us. Personally, I would like to bring Yugito and Bee."

"But…"

"But there are certain divine rules and laws that are selectively enforced by some gods, and so many people of one dimension simply hopping over into another dimension is rather frowned upon due to the chaos and destruction that typically follows the newcomers."

"After you become the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi, there wasn't anything stated about what happens to the Ten-Tails after that fact."

"True, but I'm rather tired of fighting. I'm tired of killing people and destroying things. Did you know that I haven't killed a single person in over a year now? I didn't even kill anyone at the Kage Summit."

"You broke the Kazekage's neck," Obito said.

"Yes, but he lived."

"He actually died of a blood clot in the throat not too long ago, so one of Sasori's spies says."

"Oh…damn."

"The dealings of the gods are a mystery to me," Obito admitted. "So the best I can offer is that, given enough power, you can do what you want."

"That's less prophetic wisdom and more a natural observation, like saying the sky is blue."

"The sky's more of a dark bluish purple right now, bordering on black towards the Eastern sky."

Shin'en slowly turned to look at the Uchiha, unimpressed and unamused.

"Sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood."

"You've been enjoying your Tobi persona too much."

"It is rather fun running circles around Deidara."

"And annoying to everyone else."

"Whatever."

Shin'en evoked his ring. _'Pain, Tobi and I are ready when everyone else is.'_

After so many seconds of silence, the demigod stood up, angry. He expanded his sixth sense, directing his focus all the way towards the Hidden Rain, and noted with alarm how Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Hidan, and Kakuzu were not en route in the air anymore, or anywhere that he could sense, and so Shin'en _really_ opened the gate on his hydro-sensing.

With so many years of practice, his power had grown to encompass the whole planet, but opening his mind up to the literal hydrosphere was painful and disorienting because of the humongous influx of information. All the people, what they were doing, what was in and on their bodies, all the stuff that was in the air, in the rivers, lakes, ponds, and sewers, what all of the animals were up to. Nothing could be hidden from Shin'en when he opened himself up, which was why he had been very upset to learn that the Nations were in a state of Pangea, with only a few islands having broken off here and there, such as the Land of Water.

Yeah, that plan of Yūrei's to pack up and leave the known world after the Blood War was over? They would've simply found themselves on the opposite side of the map after enough travel.

That had put Shin'en in a very bad mood for almost a whole day.

Back to the situation at hand, when the demigod's senses got to where the Hidden Rain was, specifically the tower that Naruko, Konan, Pain, and Zetsu were in, Shin'en's adrenaline spiked to find that Zetsu was nowhere around, Nagato's head wasn't attached to his neck anymore, Konan's body was aflame with a specific kind of fire, and most importantly, Naruko wasn't anywhere in the Land of Rain.

Shin'en swung his focus to the Hidden Leaf, and then he was _gone_, leaving Yugito and Bee asleep on the ground, leaving Obito by himself.

The Uchiha felt a horrible sense of dread creep into him. Pain nonresponsive, no word from the other Akatsuki members, Shin'en taking off without a word, all of this just hours away from the fruition of their plan, his life's ambitions-

Obito was suddenly engulfed by a black shape with a single, yellow eye.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Rage was a very powerful emotion. It granted one incredible amounts of power and will, but its downside was severely hampered judgement skills.

Like right now, as Shin'en was shooting across the terrain at a decent Mach 3, the large, feathery wings of the Satori carrying him along as he made way for the Hidden Leaf, particularly the chamber in which Minato and Jiraiya were busy trying to set up a Sealing jutsu—based on the patterns, it was intended for extraction and re-Sealing—with Naruko's system pumping more drugs than blood through her body. Shin'en could've been there in an instant using his water travel, but his rage was clouding his thinking just a bit, and he went barreling into the Leaf's airspace at 2300mph, having taken five minutes to get from where he was to the village.

In the next instant, he was crashing through the building, and Jiraiya's head was torn unclean from his shoulders. Shin'en had aimed for Minato but the Hokage teleported away just before the demigod's hand got to his scalp. Got to his hair, but not his scalp.

Destruction and devastation followed Shin'en in his wake, the air current he created tearing apart houses and streets. The building he crashed through was utterly destroyed, and it was a in a quick panic that Shin'en tore through the rubble to get to his fiancé, berating himself for his rash actions.

Unsurprisingly, she was just fine, her body being more than tough enough to handle some wind and superstructure.

"Percy…" she mumbled, still drugged to high heaven, obviously to ensure she didn't fight against whatever was about to be done to her. "I no feel good…"

Her words were coming out slurred and broken, and Shin'en no longer held any kind of regard for what Naruko wanted in regards to her home and her family.

The line had been crossed.

Holding her bridal style in his arms, he redeployed his wings, but before he could get a could flap in for takeoff, red energy erupted around him in a wide square, going up to form a cube, entrapping him and Naruko within its very wide confines.

"The Four Crimson Ray Formation," Shin'en muttered, recognizing this technique since it was an Uzumaki creation.

Arashi was an Uzumaki.

One of the most powerful Sealing barriers ever made, originally created to handle multiple Tailed-Beasts at a time, it needed four Kage-level shinobi to perform it and maintain the jutsu. Currently, Shin'en felt Minato, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Sasuke keeping the jutsu up.

With a couple of steps, the demigod stood in the corner that Minato was maintain.

"'Sup," was the casual greeting to the man that nearly murdered his own daughter, twice.

"We've got you this time," Minato said, straining a bit due to everyone else handling this technique not having the same levels of chakra he did.

He was carrying the team, as it were.

Naruko tried to flop out of her lover's arms. "Daddyyyyyyy…"

"Just hold tight, baby," Minato gasped. "Daddy's here and he's going to make everything all right."

Shin'en hummed, unimpressed.

Deciding to forgo banter and just get to the part where he committed genocide, totally skipping out on asking just what the plan was going forward from this point with the red barrier up, Shin'en's Eternal Mangekyou blazed, and he went shooting through the air as emerald chakra poured out of him, rapidly shaping into the ethereal warrior that was the Perfect Susano'o.

He had taken it easy in the Land of Iron.

He was not going to be showing such courtesy here.

"Sorry, Naruko, but I'm going to destroy your village now and kill just about everyone in it."

"Noooo! Don't kill the fishies…!"

"Not to worry, they won't feel a thing."

Was he forgetting about the genjutsu? No. Did he strongly suspect that it had been broken somehow, which was why Minato and Jiraiya had even attempted that Sealing jutsu? Yes. Did it actually matter to Shin'en either way? Not at all.

Keeping in mind just how much defensive power was supposed to be packed into this barrier, Shin'en held almost nothing back as his will governed the Perfect Susano'o, having it draw back into a stance, gripping its right sword with its left hand. There was a moment of pause, just to let the dread settle in, and then the sword was drawn.

_Violently_.

In canon, the Ten-Tails had fired its own Tailed-Beast Bomb pointblank into this very same barrier, and the barrier held strong, bulging like elastic to send the powerful attack up and away through the opening at the top. That barrier had also been kept up by the combined might of Hashirama and Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and Minato Namikaze. Presently, the Four Crimson Ray Formation was being held together by Minato, Kakashi, Tsunade, and Sasuke. While the shinobi in question were certainly not the four Hokage, they were stronger than their canon counterparts due to pushing themselves to be able to fight Shin'en one day.

Semantics aside, the demigod was not here to play or show off. He was here to conduct business, and right now, business meant total annihilation.

The barrier shattered apart instantly, and the transcendental wave of energy that came from the Susano'o's sword carried across the Leaf, laying waste to the village, destroying houses, restaurants, everything. The Clan Compounds were uprooted and buried, their occupants crushed to paste. The outlying training grounds were overturned, miles and miles of the surrounding forest were chopped down and reduced to splinters. Everyone in between died. Women with their children were not spared, nor babes in the cradle.

Not even the little packs of homeless puppies were saved from Shin'en's unbelievable strength.

A single swing of the Susano'o's sword, even up against the outstandingly powerful Four Crimson Ray Formation, a technique that contained the mighty Ten-Tails, just destroyed the entirety of the Hidden Leaf.

Just a _swing_.

Shin'en stoically beheld the devastation, ignoring the intense burning along his forearm. He hadn't looked at his kill-count tattoo in over a year, not since his last Awakening after Asteria and Annabeth died. He knew that he had started a Dimensional Quake, sending out waves of power on an extradimensional scale that resulted in dimensions across the Multiverse being wiped out, all those therein that died contributing to the growing number on his forearm.

Last time Shin'en actually looked at it, the number had read as 10^303, which was centillion. For comparison's sake, a trillion was written as 10^12, and there was just barely eight billion people on present-day Earth.

No doubt, the number on his arm shot up by about 30,000.

Taking a breath to calm his raging nerves, Shin'en had to relook at things. Now that he had Naruko safe and sound back in his arms, no doubt having been teleported to the Leaf by Minato's jutsu—which really begged the question of why the Hokage hadn't just done that already, before this mess started…unless there was something else at hand—he could now worry about the Akatsuki.

Pain and Konan were dead, and he hadn't sensed Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Kakuzu, Hidan, or Zetsu anywhere on the planet, leading Shin'en to believe that they had also died of some means. Some very powerful means, as those Akatsuki members were very, very far from weak.

To get the drop on them, especially with Sasori's magnetic field up all around him, you'd have to be insanely fast and powerful.

The implications brought a decent amount of worry to Shin'en.

One thing at a time, though. First, since Naruko was in the safest place on Earth—his arms—there was no need to worry about dropping her off somewhere, not that there was anywhere to actually take her considering the Rain was compromised, so the first order of business was to get back to Obito and the hideout where the Gedo Statue was, and pray that nothing else had happened.

Before he did that, Shin'en cancelled his Perfect Susano'o and deployed his wings, catching the air. With a flap he was on his way. Directing his senses towards the Statue's location so that he knew what he was flying into, Shin'en's whole world came to a grinding, agonizing halt.

He felt the water in the muscles of the man's mouth move, and he knew the words he spoke from those movements.

_Shine upon the world…__Infinite Tsukuyomi__!_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_What just happened:_

With Black Zetsu's help, Itachi was able to slip into the Hidden Rain where, using his incredible skills in stealth, was able to decapitate Nagato from behind and catch Konan in the Amaterasu. Itachi took Nagato's Rinnegan, which are actually Madara's Rinnegan.

It was also Itachi, using a very powerful, very thorough use of the Amaterasu to catch the flying members of the Akatsuki, Deidara, Sasori, Kisame, Kakuzu, and Hidan, in the fire, burning them all up instantly. Itachi used so much chakra in that single use that he nearly killed himself via chakra exhaustion, just to make sure that the job was done.

Black Zetsu, having completely and totally overrode Obito's mind and will, in full control of the Uchiha's body, performed the Reanimation Jutsu to bring up Madara from the grave. With Itachi's timely arrival, and a quick word from Zetsu that things needed to be hurried along, Madara freed himself from the confines of the Reanimation.

Zetsu ripped out Obito's eye and slammed in one of the Rinnegan, the Senju cells in Obito's body instantly accepting the eye, and the Will of Kaguya performed the Gedo Art: Rinne Rebirth to totally bring Madara back to life, and then Zetsu ripped out the Rinnegan and gave it to Madara, who implanted it and happily received his other eye from Itachi. Introductions were skipped in favor of directing attention to the Gedo Statue, which conveniently matured at that moment.

The Ten-Tails was back and ready to go, and Madara, with both of his eyes back in his head, Sealed the beast into himself posthaste. Five seconds later of adjusting to the power and dominating the will of the rampant Ten-Tails, Madara underwent the transformation.

His hair turned white and got just a bit longer, his skin dramatically paled, a white robe with black magatama appeared around him, and coming to life behind him were seven black spheres of chakra, the Truthseeker Orbs.

With the full moon overhead, and the sense that things needed to be hurried along, Madara shot into the air, forgoing the act of savoring the moment in favor of actually getting to the moment he had worked for, for over sixty years. With nothing and no one to stop him, Madara cast the most powerful genjutsu of all time, completely and totally ignorant of its true purpose and power.

Night turned to day as the Moon lit up, reflecting the Six Paths chakra that Madara's central Rinne-Sharingan was casting on it.

This technique held true to the principles of ocular genjutsu that Shin'en and Obito had discovered, in that it was chakra riding on the light waves that initiated the genjutsu. The difference between the light coming off the Moon and the light coming of a Sharingan, regardless of whose Sharingan, was the Moon's light was in at a much, _much_ higher frequency, more akin to that of gamma rays. With that kind of high-energy wave, the light of the Infinite Tsukuyomi was easily able to bypass things like walls and ceilings, regardless of the material used to make them.

Because of that, Shin'en's plan to keep Naruko safe from the jutsu's light by putting her in the deepest, darkest room in the Hidden Rain wouldn't have worked.

Speaking of them, before everything went dark in his mind, Shin'en was able to note the visage of the Rinnegan over his fiancé's eyes, and could only guess that his eyes were reflecting the same thing. He tightened his grip on her as he slowly drifted down to the ground, body going on autopilot as the power of the Infinite Tsukuyomi took hold.

Obviously, this was not part of the plan, but as had been his life's governing principle—though seldom ever requiring implementation due to how good Plan A usually went off—he had a backup plan.

What he knew about the Infinite Tsukuyomi was that it was just a super genjutsu that manipulated your senses in accordance to what your deepest desire was. If that held true, then the genjutsu could be undone just like any other genjutsu: an extreme enough shock to the system, either by your own will or by aid from another. However, for something as powerful as the Infinite Tsukuyomi, something that entrapped you in something so specific as the desire of your heart, Shin'en concluded that the only way to break the genjutsu yourself was simple:

Kill your heart.

As the humongous roots began to tear through the land, thousands of branches snaking out to wrap everyone up in a snug cocoon of eternal nourishment, Shin'en prepared himself, readying his mind, his spirit, and his body for something that was going to be undyingly emotionally agonizing.

Of course, when the branches went taught, Naruko still held tightly in his arms, and the world went totally dark, Shin'en forgot all of these things as the Infinite Tsukuyomi took total hold.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**That's a wrap for now.**_

_**There was actually a thousand words and more after that I had typed up and ready to go, but I decided to cut that and now it's sitting in another document, ready to go not for the next chapter, but the one after it.**_

_**Next chapter is for Persephone. The plan is to steamroll through the **__**Heroes of Olympus**__** and cap off the chapter with Persephone's 18**__**th**__** birthday celebration, which will lead back to the Shin'en side of things.**_

_**I also have news! Whether it's good or bad depends on your outlook.**_

_**I changed the name of last chapter since there really isn't a war going on, and I'm going to finish this story. I've got the plan, I've got the motivation, and I've got the vision. So, by month's end, **__**Backup Plan**__** will be over. Am I still going to do the **__**RWBY**__** crossover teased in Chapter 6 of **__**Backup Plan**__**? Probably. When is that going to happen? I don't know. I've still got a novel and other fics to write. **_

_**Also, I'm sorry for how things seemed to get rushed there at the end, with the Akatsuki going down so easily after I spent so much time hyping them up, and how the Ten-Tails, Madara, and the **__**Infinite Tsukuyomi**__** was all covered in exposition, but I was trying to capture how much of a panic Zetsu was in to end things correctly.**_

_**Shin'en being the host of the Ten-Tails, as opposed to Madara, brings with it no guarantee that Kaguya would return as Zetsu planned and hoped for, and with all the Sealing being complete and the Gedo Statue undergoing maturation, Zetsu needed to move fast. The Akatsuki needed to go because they would've no doubt opposed him, and after so much training with Shin'en, they would've driven Madara into the dust, reanimated or not.**_

_**The thing with Naruko was also orchestrated by Zetsu, so that Shin'en would go away just long enough for Zetsu to do his job. **_

_**Also, just as a heads up, I will be taking liberties with the canonical stories of Kaguya and the **__**Infinite Tsukuyomi**__**, but I've taken enough liberties with the PJO and Naruto canons that this shouldn't be an offending shock.**_

_**Until next time…**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	8. Interesting Times on the Argo II

_Interesting Times on the Argo II_

_**All you people with your strange predictions of a happy ending…**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or Percy Jackson

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_Previously, on the _Argo II:

"_Oh well?" Jason echoed, eyes narrowing as an edge crept into his voice. "We're talking about the legion going to war with your camp! The Greeks will be annihilated, and Rome will be left to fight Gaea and her giants all by ourselves."_

"_Bold of you to assume Rome has a chance against Greece."_

_A spark danced off of Jason, his pride as a Roman coming to light. "Rome will destroy Greece, just like we did in the old days."_

"_Oh, is that so?"_

_Persephone flexed her hand, and Jason was then subject to the most intense and uncomfortable feeling ever in his life. He had been duped into pulling the fake, shocker gum stick before his powers had fully matured, and received that numbing tingle up his arm. Right now, his whole body was feeling like that, only a lot worse._

_He was also pinned to the ceiling in a spread-eagle form, and was dimly aware of the sudden shouting going on, and the smirk Persephone had on her face as she looked at him with her hand out. A little voice told Jason that since she was the daughter of Poseidon, she had power over water, and the human body was over three-fourths water, and she was in control of all that water._

…

_Nah, Persephone's period manifested in very bad mood swings, which could be pitifully funny in some situations, and potentially lethal in others, like just now. Annabeth was kicking her own butt for not noticing. Going from totally nonchalant about a Gaea-possessed Leo potential committing mass murder and starting a demigod civil war to downright sadistic with Jason, blood-bending him into the ceiling while levying the threat of doing the same thing—on a lethal level—to the whole legion, the same legion that had hailed her as a hero and elected her praetor._

…

"_What is wrong with you? I'm talking about the end of the world here, and you're stuffing your face with waffles and acting like we're cancelling our weekend trip to the lake!"_

_Instead of popping Jason's head off his shoulder, Persephone instead leaned forward on her elbows, bracing her head between the backs of her fingers with a smile._

"_Well, you see cousin, when I was twelve…"_

_And then the next thirty straight minutes were occupied by the daughter of Poseidon going over every single one of her feats, accomplishments, and achievements, from something as minor as killing the likes of Procrustes with his own magical beds, to fighting gods and Titans, with Annabeth throwing in a comment here and there about something Persephone forgot._

"…_and just recently, Frank and Hazel helped get us all the way up to Alaska, where we freed Death, defeated a ghost legion, and killed Alcyoneus, all before racing all the way back down to Camp Jupiter, where defeated a monster army, defeated Polybotes, and I got named praetor. So, yeah, I apologize if I don't seem overly concerned with the same things I've been doing for the past five years."_

…

"_Think about it: we've got the power, we're here, right now, and we can do it. Annabeth's got the brains, Piper's got the voice, Jason's got the wind and the lightning, Leo's got the fire and the mechanical knowhow, Frank can turn into just about anything, Hazel's got the ground-power and can bring in any money we might need, and I've got the water. Guys, we can do it! With our powers, we can get this world back on the right track and it's like Uncle Ben said: with great power comes great responsibility, and we've got the great power, and I think the great responsibility goes way beyond just fighting mythological bad guys—so who's with me!?" Persephone grabbed her glass and raised it high, sloshing a little bit of blue chocolate milk onto her hand. _

_As she looked around the mess hall, Persephone wasn't greeted with shining eyes and invigorated smiles. She didn't see enthusiasm and hope. Instead, she saw guilt, downtrodden gazes, downcast looks, and self-loathing. Even Coach Hedge, who should've been all about saving the planet, couldn't lift eyes to look Persephone in the face._

…

"_We're pretty much stuck where we are on this quest, but after that, then we can choose where we want to go and what we want to be. If you want to be Superman and be a worldwide force for good, cleaning up the oceans and destroying polluting factories and getting jerked all over on quests given by the gods, then all the power to you. We, us—we're dropping this quest thing forever. We're ditching the magic trireme, and the weapons, and the powers, and we're going to just be normal teenagers, dealing with high school drama, finals, and bills."_

_Persephone glowered at Piper. _

"_You've completed one quest—one. I've completed four big ones and was the commanding officer in a world-saving battle. I went from Camp Half-Blood to LA and down into the Underworld to have a chat with Hades himself before dueling Ares in single combat on the Santa Monica beach. I went into the Sea of Monsters and brought back the Golden Fleece, saving Camp Half-Blood. I held up the sky and helped free the captive Artemis. I went into Labyrinth and routed an army, saving Camp Half-Blood a second time, and then I held Manhattan for three days with roughly a hundred demigods, fending off wave after wave of Kronos' army. Not to mention all the minor quests therein and after the fact, and yet here I am, back and ready for more. So what does that say about all of you?"_

"_It says we're weak," Piper said. "Fine, I admit it. We're not as strong as the great Persephone Jackson, the girl who's done all these miraculous things and can't go five hours without saying the word poop. Makes you wonder what kind of stuff she's into when no one's looking."_

_Persephone was not amused._

"_The world is doomed. Not because of money, or greed, or because of evil, or gods, or monsters, or anything like that. The world's doomed because the people with the power to change the world lack the will to do so."_

_And with that ending statement, with words that were more appropriate for the mouth of Shin'en than his big sister, Persephone stood with enough force to throw her chair back and departed the mess hall, her steps thundering like the roar of cannons._

_-excerpts from _Chapter 4 _of _Backup Plan: Armageddon

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Things were tense on the _Argo II _after Persephone's sentiments were shared with the crew of minors. Everyone but her was stuck in a cycle of guilt and justification; guilt because some part of them felt she was absolutely right—they had the power, therefore they had the responsibility to fix things—and justification because they were already fixing things—here they all were on a magic boat sailing across the United States after their hasty exodus from New Rome, five of them having already completed one super-dangerous quest themselves, and now they were all on their way towards the completing of another quest, one to save the world from the world itself.

After they were done, assuming they survived, why should they have to give _more_ to the world after they saved from such powerful supernatural beings?

Besides the tumultuous feelings on their duties as demigods, there was now a clear division amongst the seven half-bloods: Persephabeth and Jasper, as Leo had taken to calling the two pairs.

Really, though, it was more Persephone against Piper.

Annabeth tried to act more as mediator, trying to help find middle ground for the girls, but her real purpose was to calm Persephone back down and stay her hand from spilling any blood, especially during this wonderful time of the month. On Piper's side, Jason was less mediator and more like moral support, ready to throw in his two cents when he felt it was needed.

Hedge was so out of his depth in the face of struggling Big Three children that he mostly kept to his cabin, watching Chuck Norris movies and television while munching on magazines. Leo, despite being best friends with Piper and Jason, stayed out of dodge, as did Hazel and Frank.

Still, it was clear to everyone that differences _must_ be set aside if they were going to succeed in their quest, and a big first step in that direction was the little side quest they took to Topeka, Kansas, in accordance with a dream that Piper had—Persephone had bit her tongue to keep from making a snide comment about whether or not the daughter of Aphrodite had peed herself again during her dream—with the three going to investigate being Piper, Jason, and Persephone.

Predictably, it ended in absolute disaster.

For a time, Piper could only just stare in shock and awe at what she was seeing: the swords of Jason and Persephone, going back and forth so fast that she couldn't see them, the sounds of their clashing befitting an whole battlefield than just two teenagers, and the asphalt at their feet was slowly but surely cracking apart from the shockwaves created by Imperial gold meeting Celestial bronze what had to be at least a dozen times in a single second.

In a way, it was more beautiful than anything Piper had ever seen, and she had been to plays, ballets, and operas with her father, and had seen the tribal celebrations of the Cherokee when visiting her grandfather on the reservation. The skill being displayed by the two demigods was nothing short of otherworldly, and something was telling Piper that they both had more in the tank, and what she was seeing was being limited by the eidolons' limited power and experience in controlling Jason and Persephone's bodies.

Piper had an ADHD thought and wondered if the eidolons had genders, and if they did, if these two were both male, how the one in control of Persephone felt about the change in plumbing.

Piper shook her head and dashed those thoughts; she had lives to save, which got that much harder when Jason was suddenly riding a thundercloud in the shape of a horse, and Persephone was riding atop a very beautiful black stallion of a pegasus…without a saddle. That had to hurt.

Anyway, Piper got Blackjack to nail both Jason and Persephone in the head, and her biggest takeaway from this experience was a little bit of math.

Jason had been in the legion since he was five years old. Since the legion didn't actually accept members until twelve, he had been a part of the "junior legion," which had basically been a super preschool, by his own account, and then from twelve to until Hera kidnapped him, he had been a leading member of the actual legion, even ascending to praetor for his valor, skill, and prowess shown during the Battle of Mt. Othrys. Effectively, as he approached the age of seventeen, Jason had over a decade of training under his belt, living and serving at Camp Jupiter his whole life.

Whereas Persephone had only entered the mythological game in earnest the summer before she turned thirteen, so when she was twelve, and the only training she ever received was when she was attending Camp Half-Blood during the summers since her twelfth year, so, three months during year twelve, and then just three months of each year aside from the current one, her seventeenth, so twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen, five years, three months each—fifteen months total.

With training time amounting to a year and some change, Persephone had fought Jason to a standstill, even with his decade+ _years_ of training.

Piper engaged in wishful thinking, trying to believe that somewhere in that possession, Jason was holding back, fighting the eidolon so that it wouldn't have access to his full power so that it wouldn't outright dice Persephone to pieces, but Piper's own self strongly disagreed and urged her to accept the truth: Persephone's raw power far outstripped that of Jason's, and if they were really serious about fighting to the death, then the winner was clear.

It was official.

Piper was picking fights with the most powerful half-blood alive.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Persephone would laugh at anyone that called her the strongest. That title went to her little brother, hands down, though she did have moments when she felt incredibly powerful. Something Annabeth had told her, and confirmed by Poseidon, was that, as the firstborn twin, she had a magically ordained superiority in terms of power over her and her brother's domains.

While it didn't seem like it, that was due to the fact that Percy had that chakra stuff in him, and he had learned how to incorporate that in his divine powers to give himself a tremendous boost, but if you subtracted the chakra from the occasion, and just pitted Persephone against her brother, that ordained authority as the firstborn would win out.

There was nothing more to it than that.

As she floated in Phorcys' oversized aquarium, trapped with Frank the Friendly Koi fish swimming around behind her, Persephone focused on these things. She focused on how hurt her beloved little brother really was on the inside, how much he desperately needed her in his life but refused to admit it, and how much strength she needed so that she could support him when he finally caved and started crying on her shoulder.

He was carrying tons of emotional weight with him, and so Persephone needed to be strong, for him if no one else.

And how could she possibly be strong enough to carry her brother if she couldn't do something simple like subvert an ancient deity's control over his own freakin' element!?

With anger borne of her own inadequacy, and with fury for what was being done to the mythological creatures that were trapped here; with righteous desire to be strong for people other than herself, and on top of all of this, with sheer, indomitable willpower, Persephone _tore_ the water around her free for Phorcys' divine grasp, making the god squawk from where he was in the Georgia Aquarium.

With eyes that were faintly glowing, Persephone used her newfound authority and slammed several thousand gallons of water against the super-thick bulletproof glass of the aquarium. You could've fired a bazooka at this glass from thirty feet away, and there'd barely be a crack. Against Persephone's power, the whole aquarium shattered in an instant.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The following evening, after Hedge had instituted curfew and went to take his post at the helm for night watch, Annabeth decided to finally institute her plan of sharing a brief, romantic evening with her girlfriend, having not been able to in a few months shy of a year.

After rubbing one out in five minutes flat so that her hormones would be under control enough to where she wouldn't feel compelled to put her hands all over Persephone's body—hopefully—Annabeth cleaned herself up and put on a clean pair of thong and some sleep shorts that matched her t-shirt. Quietly slipping from her cabin, unfortunately unable to simply use her magic baseball cap due to Athena's mental breakdown, Annabeth tiptoed her way down the halls to Persephone's room.

When she and Leo had been designing the ship, under the guise of privacy protection, she had ordered the walls of everyone's cabin to be soundproofed. Of course, that was really because this boat was going to be occupied by horny teenagers on a life-or-death quest against gods, monsters, giants, and the Earth itself—a very stressful experience to be sure, and what better to relieve that stress than with some sex?

Annabeth didn't want the sounds of anyone's pleasure to bounce through the halls.

Anyway, she lightly rapped on Persephone's door, and when she didn't hear any sounds of admittance, she gently opened it up to find her girlfriend trying to drift into a peaceful sleep, the ear pods from her MP3 plugged in. Annabeth bit her lip as she considered the pros and cons of waking Persephone up, but she figured that if it was for a moment between them, Persephone wouldn't mind.

With careful steps towards the bed, Annabeth reached out to gently shake the sleep beauty, but when her hand got so close, Persephone's own snapped out from under her covers, her eyes popping open, intercepting Annabeth's wrist. When she saw whose hand she had a hold of, she blinked and let go, turning off her music.

"Please tell me you weren't open to try putting your fingers in my mouth or something."

Annabeth internally cringed, berating herself that Persephone's first thoughts of this encounter were that she (Annabeth) had been about to do something sexually devious, and made very big mental notes to exercise much better behavior and restraint.

"Nope," Annabeth smiled tensely, hoping that her embarrassment and shame weren't visible in the dimness cast by the little nightlight on the dresser, its purpose being that if Persephone needed to go poop in the night, she could find her way to her door without a problem—her own words, paraphrased. "I was just thinking that since we finally have a chance to be together, just you and me, we should take it while we can. Besides, I want to show you something."

Annabeth wasn't sure, but she thought she saw a flash of nervous excited, anticipation go through Persephone's eyes.

Less than two minutes later, after quietly tiptoeing their way down the halls, both of them feeling the telltale rush of adrenaline as they were fully aware of the fact that they were breaking the rules, and the excitement that came with the possibility of getting caught, Annabeth successfully led them down to the pegasi stables at the very bottom of the ship.

They sat down together, Annabeth leaning her head on Persephone's shoulder, Persephone leaning her head on top of Annabeth's.

"Leo and I designed this in case any pegasi needed to board."

The smell of wood and hay was strong here, reminding them both of the stables at Camp Half-Blood, though where Annabeth was just fine without the tang of manure, Persephone found the lack of its presence to make the full image of her beloved camp incomplete, just like how she had always felt without Percy at her side ever since she learned he existed.

"Pegasi don't really like to be cooped up," Persephone said, kind of offhandedly.

"Yeah, but we have it just in case. My favorite part about this part of the ship is this big Plexiglass bottom."

Persephone was right on board with that one. Below them, the South whizzed past as the _Argo II _headed for Charlestown, in accordance with Annabeth's dream regarding the Mark of Athena, the Athena Parthenos, and the Weaver, who she was 100% sure was Arachne the spider. It was night out, and they were passing over countryside, but sometimes they went over a patch of town, and what lights were on blending together in a stunning light show.

"You know what this reminds me of?" Annabeth asked, after a moment of comfortable silence. "The two of us awake on a massively important quest, together in the dark of a moving vehicle with some hay?"

"The Lightning Thief quest," Persephone said, her brain instantly clicking. "We were in the back of that animal trafficking truck, and Grover was out like a light."

"Yeah," Annabeth wistfully sighed. "I was still a boy and it was _so awkward_ between us."

"You kept looking at my butt the whole quest."

The blonde flushed. "Y-You noticed that?"

"Of _course_ I noticed you looking at my butt. After living with that bastard Gabe for so long, I kinda developed a feeling for when my butt was being eyeballed."

Annabeth suddenly felt very dirty, but then she suddenly felt very worried. So worried, that she raised up to look Persephone in the eye.

"What?"

Annabeth gently set her hands on the green-eyed girl's shoulders. "Persephone…Gabe didn't…he didn't _do anything_…to you, did he?"

"Other than being an awful asshole that would take whatever money I had, and just being an all-around jerk, no. He didn't _do anything_ to me, not like you're thinking he did."

Scarily enough, perhaps it was paranoia born out of what Annabeth knew of the human mind from her studies into every subject she could get a book on, but Annabeth wasn't totally convinced of Persephone's account that Gabe kept his hands to himself. He very well could've, maybe when she was still young, like at six or seven, when he first married Sally, and Persephone's mind was repressing the memory to escape the trauma associated with a grown man molesting her, if not worse.

Gabe molesting Persephone could've also been a catalyst for her genophobia, on top of Aphrodite's torture years ago.

This was certainly not how Annabeth had pictured this night going; she had just wanted to spend a couple of peaceful minutes in a place of nostalgia, reminiscing about the past and the beginning of their relationship, and now it appeared that there was a possibility that Persephone had been either molested or raped by Gabe, and Annabeth was certainly going to find the time to conduct an investigation, no doubt with magic, to determine the truth of this matter, and if it _was_ true, then Cerberus was about to cower at Annabeth's approach.

"Hey, you okay? You've got that determined look on your face."

Annabeth blinked. "I have a determined look?"

"Yeah. At camp, and when we're at school, I see you get this look on your face after something happened—and it's all full of determination, and then you go out and do something and you don't stop until it's done."

"Oh…"

"I think you look hot with your determined look."

Annabeth didn't know about looking hot, but her cheeks certainly grew warm. "I l-look hot with my determined look?"

"Mm-hm. So hot I could kiss you."

Wisdom suddenly failed its daughter when the sea's child suddenly leaned forward to press their lips together.

Fire and electricity raced throughout Annabeth's body at the kiss. Her heart did a tap dance in her chest and her blood flew through her veins. Sure, they had kissed tons of time, though those kisses were mostly just quick pecks on the cheek, sometime on the lips, but they had never actually _made out_. Every time Annabeth tried to deepen a simple kiss into a make out session, Persephone would flit away, seemingly oblivious to what Annabeth's intentions were, or she would pull away, suddenly nervous and uncomfortable.

Perhaps that was why Annabeth couldn't think right now: it was _Persephone_ that had initiated this kiss, and it wasn't just some light rapping of the lips. No, this was a full blown, passionate, _love-filled_ kiss.

Annabeth found herself on seventh heaven, floating a happy little cloud of bliss, so when she felt something warm, wet and squishy suddenly press at her mouth, not only did she realize what that was, but she also internally squeed, finding herself on another level of heaven as she opened her mouth to let Persephone's tongue inside.

Despite having masturbated literally less than ten minutes ago, all for the sake of _not_ getting aroused, Annabeth could feel her thong start to get moist, and it had nothing to do with the excited little sweat that she had broken into in the wake of Persephone's advances. If her brain hadn't been so clouded with hormones and other pleasurable chemicals, Annabeth would've noted some odd things, like how Persephone was suddenly bold enough to initiate a make-out session after so many years, and how she was actually putting her tongue in Annabeth's mouth in the traditional fashion of a French kiss, and was doing a _good job_ of it.

Persephone, for her part, was actually terrified.

She was in uncharted territory, doing something she had never done before with the person she loved most in her life after Percy and Mom. She was scared she'd mess something up, or she'd do something wrong, or she'd somehow hurt Annabeth and she'd never want anything to do with her ever again, or she'd never want to do something like _this _again.

As for where enough bravado to actually take a stab at sex came from was when Persephone had done some thinking. Nine months she had been away from her girlfriend, and while she had been magically asleep for most of that, the fact that she had still gone nine months without seeing Annabeth meant that Annabeth had gone nine months without seeing _her_, and had no doubt been a panicky, twitching, snappish mess of a girl. They were used to seeing each other on a daily basis ever since the Christmas Break of their freshman year, when Annabeth had transferred over from California in lieu of all the drama Persephone had been caught in.

With no other place to go, Annabeth had lived with Sally, Paul, and her girlfriend, and so them being torn apart like that out of the blue by the gods made it clear that they could be torn up again, only this time on a more permanent basis…potentially.

Harkening back to the days before her sixteenth birthday, before the Battle of Manhattan, when Annabeth had tried to force herself onto Persephone in the fear that they were going to die and she wanted to know her in the most intimate of ways, Persephone had denied her because she thought the blonde was being silly and they weren't going to die because Percy.

Well, Percy wasn't here for the Giant War, and while it was possible he would show for some last minute awesomeness, Persephone wasn't leaving it up to chance. So, in light of just how dangerous this quest was, going up against a literal Primordial _and_ her humongous litter of god-opposing children, Persephone found herself in Annabeth's shoes, in that she wanted to know her girlfriend.

She had also come to grips with the fact that sex, while hardly the most integral part of any relationship, was still a part of the relationship, and a part of life. Her circumstances were certainly unique, being mind-raped by the goddess of love, but she couldn't let that define her. She couldn't let that experience, drastic and enormous as it was, keep her as an emotional cripple, especially in the face of her brother.

He had gone through so much by himself, and had no one there to help through any of it—not in the sense they provided _help_ as in counseling and therapy, but they gave him pointy objects and taught him how to kill people. Percy had seen the deaths of orphan brothers and sisters and turned into a homicidal maniac. Yūrei had turned him into a little boy again, but they had arguably…no, not arguably, _definitely_ fucked him up worse, and their untimely deaths, technically his fault, technically not, did not help matters.

Percy spent three days curled on the floor of the hideout, not eating or drinking, and not even really sleeping, before, through sheer force of will, he scraped enough of himself together to get moving again.

Never mind the other mountains he had to climb all by himself.

On the other hand, Persephone had her mom, her stepdad, her dad—should the Fates be kind enough—and perhaps most importantly, her girlfriend. She _did _have help to get her over her own mountains, and those mountains _had _to be overcome. For her sake, and for her brother's.

How could she be the big sister he desperately needed if she couldn't handle sex?

A bit of a downplay, but Persephone was trying to convince herself otherwise, and she was succeeding.

Hence her tongue halfway down Annabeth's throat and her fingers steadily migrating northward from the blonde's inner thigh up to the middle of her shorts.

Persephone had gently pushed Annabeth to the ground of the stables, still steadily Frenching her, and the grey-eyed girl had her arms around the other's neck, steadily moaning at the ministrations steadily approaching her vulva. Persephone had her other arm planted firmly for support.

Eventually, her fingers reached the most sacred spot on the female body, and she began to tease, simply running her two fingers up and down along the middle of Annabeth's shorts, making her squirm and softly moan. Persephone had to release the kiss in order to protect her tongue from being bitten, and Annabeth covered her mouth with her arm so that she didn't wake the ship up. Now the position they were in was Persephone kind of leaning over Annabeth while remaining on her side, giving her enough leverage to use her hand while not being all the way on top of Annabeth.

Persephone kept up her teasing for a just a little more, applying more pressure to the cloth to dig the soft fabric against the nerves. She felt her fingers getting wet, and took a bit of pride in knowing she could get her girlfriend aroused. Persephone got her thumb involved, rubbing it all over the front of Annabeth's shorts until she found that little place that made the blonde jump and cross her legs, her back arching.

With a devious smirk, Persephone stopped altogether, and Annabeth groaned in frustration, moving her arms out of the way of her face enough to where the annoyance and accusation were very clear in her grey eyes. The smirk getting a little bigger, Persephone leaned back in and took those wonderful lips yet again, and despite her frustration, Annabeth let her, opening her mouth to allow that wonderful tongue back in inside her.

Annabeth sucked on it, careful not to scrape with her teeth as best she could.

Lost in the throughs of another intense make-out session, Persephone slipped her hand underneath Annabeth's shirt and gently rubbed back and forth over the abdomen, appreciating the presence of solid, toned muscle, and marveling at the fact that she managed to land a girl that took such great care of her body. For the next part, Persephone's own pulse quickened even more than its current pace, as she _really _entered uncharted territory.

She hardly ever touched her own girlhood, content with using her powers of water to remove all remaining pee after a trip to the bathroom, and while in the shower, she used the water to strip clean her whole body, removing all dirt, germs, bacteria, and overall filth from her skin, folds, and crevices with more effectiveness than any soap on the planet, though she did use soap and shampoo and whatnot to smell nice.

Tomboy as she was, she was still a girl and liked it when Annabeth complimented her on how nice she smelled.

Still, with her personal inexperience in regards to playing with herself, that didn't mean Persephone didn't know what she was doing. She had Aphrodite to thank for her knowledge of how to please girls with just her fingers and tongue. Taking a mental deep breath, Persephone took one of two major plunges into the world of lesbian sex, and pushed her hand under the waistband of Annabeth's panties, where she was granted total, uninterrupted access to the girl's most sensitive parts.

Annabeth gasped and broke the kiss, and Persephone was actually kind of surprised to feel her fingers going over smooth, unblemished skin, figuring that Annabeth was the type of girl to keep just a little bit of pubic hair, if nothing else than to feel mature about herself. Regardless, Persephone received firsthand experience as to what a girl felt like under her underwear.

It was a lot easier to feel Annabeth's clit without her clothes in the way, but it was a lot weirder feeling her muffin without said clothes. It was warm, it was slick by nature and wet with her fluids; the lips, being teenaged, were tight and close to the body, and the entrance was open, inviting and ready. Given the angle, Persephone pushed as much of her fingers inside as she could, gasping at the texture, gasping at the squeeze, gasping at the novel of her fingers so easily slipping inside another girl's muffin.

Annabeth's moan was muffled by her arms but still loud.

Persephone didn't care; if anyone came down here and interrupted them, especially Hedge with his obnoxious baseball bat and whistle, they were going to die. No ifs, ands, or buts. Right now, the quest didn't matter, the world didn't matter, the _Argo II _and her crew didn't matter—dare she say it, but Persephone didn't know is Mom and Percy even mattered right now. All that mattered was this special, intimate, private moment with her beloved.

Persephone pushed her fingers in and out, fully aware of all the goop that was getting on them and all over Annabeth's pants, using her thumb to relentlessly rub the blonde's pleasure nub. As she kept working her fingers, Persephone was also feeling for something in there, something she had read on the back of one of Annabeth's nudes, some place inside of their muffins, the prostate, that when pressed would make them experience all kinds of pleasure.

Also called the g-spot.

Annabeth said she had managed to find hers, roughly an inch-and-a-half inside, and that hers felt like a smooth bump.

Persephone was feeling for it, pushing in and pushing up, but for the life of her, she could not feel such a bump. Still, as Annabeth's moans picked up in occurrence and intensity, her body moving, her back arching higher and higher, Persephone supposed it didn't matter.

Finally, the pinnacle was reached.

Persephone found her fingers to be squeezed tightly, a big rush of fluid going past to spill all over the inside of Annabeth's pants, getting them all sticky and messy. So much came out and leaked that Persephone couldn't help but link what she saw to a wetting accident.

"_Mmmmmm!_" Annabeth practically screamed into the crook of her arm as her body was rocked, her vaginal muscles clamping around the warm finger still in her, the muscles convulsing as they released cum. Through the haze of pleasure, the powerful orgasm making her feel sleepy in the afterglow, Annabeth thought it was awesome that even after masturbating just ten minutes prior, Persephone had gotten her to cum _this much_.

The sea princess gingerly pulled her hand out of her girlfriend's pants, finding her fingers to be covered in a milky fluid that reminded her of the Borden Eagle Brand that she and Mom would buy when they wanted to make homemade ice cream. The fluid smelled sweet, and Persephone decided to take another plunge, and shoved her goo-covered fingers into her mouth before she could think otherwise.

'_Oh my gods!'_

Persephone's eyes rolled into the back of her head a bit as Annabeth's flavor rapidly spread across her tongue, triggering every taste bug she had. It was sweet, it was delicious, it was better than ice cream and a cold can of coke on a hot day. It was even better than Mom coming to pick her up from school early and having a thing of blue chocolate chip cookies fresh out of the bakery oven ready for her to snack on as they went back home.

Sucking her fingers dry, Persephone was sorely tempted to reach back down there and scoop some more, but she felt that a bit unbecoming.

"So…I guess I taste good, then…?" Annabeth asked tiredly.

That orgasm had been _wild_, and she was honestly struggling to keep awake, trying to summon the energy and will to pull herself together so she could reciprocate Persephone's delicate attentions, but damn was it hard. After that blissful explosion, Annabeth really just wanted to cuddle up and go to sleep, having been drained.

"You taste awesome," Persephone said earnestly. "Hey, you okay?"

"Sleepy…really good work…"

"Thanks. First time…technically."

"Technically—oh, right. I am so, so sorry…"

"Don't be. You finally helped me get over it just now."

"Glad I could…help."

"Want me to carry you back to bed?"

"No…let's just stay here…I wanna cuddle."

"Then cuddle we shall."

Annabeth rolled over, transforming into the little spoon for the time being, her waning consciousness dancing with sexual fantasies ready to be tried in the future given Persephone's newfound confidence. Persephone laid down, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's waist, not caring in the slightest that they were on the unforgiving wood of the stables and would probably wake up sore, probably by someone and then there'd be a humorous episode of everyone being embarrassed.

Persephone didn't feel embarrassed.

She was feeling the happiest she had felt in ages.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They didn't get caught, since Annabeth woke up and woke Persephone up before anyone else was up, and they were able to stretch and shower and even get their clothes into the laundry before anyone could see them and question the strong, sweet smell, and the faintly yellow stains in Annabeth's underwear and shorts.

They reached Charlestown and were ambushed by the angry Romans at Fort Sumpter, with Annabeth having a quick chat with Reyna, who noted the little glow around the blonde and asked how the sex was, to which the response was that it was awesome and she couldn't wait for more. Reyna reaffirmed her invitation for a threesome, and Annabeth told her that she'd have to talk with Persephone about it, and then they had to get back to business.

However, business was interrupted when the girls turned their attention to the docks, and they both nearly jizzed in their pants at the incredibly hot display of Jason and Persephone, Jason having somehow lost his shirt, revealing his rocking abs and pecks, and Persephone managed to have garnered a rip across the back of her jeans, flashing her blue boy short panties. The cousins had their swords crossed and their eyes were glowing as they unleashed the weather against the attack force of Romans, pummeling them with gale force winds and stinging, slanting rain.

The _Argo II_ left Charlestown posthaste, and the demigods were home free as they went racing across the Atlantic into enemy territory. The magic ship eventually had to set down in the ocean so that Festus could rest or something like that, and then it was up to Persephone to keep the ship safe.

When Skolopendra attacked, she showed just how powerful she was by using the water of the oceans to tear the humongous, mutant shrimp to literal pieces. However, Leo, Hazel, and Frank all got knocked overboard but were rescued by the attendees of Camp Fish-Blood, who bid Persephone good will and good luck, and that her father was proud of her, and they sent her a big basket full of brownies, along with the recipe.

The takeaway from that was Leo, Hazel, and Frank finally figured themselves out, and they were all off on their quest again, things going smoothly, right up until this butthole of a pirate decided to ram the _Argo II _head on in the middle of a fog.

"Little sister," Chrysaor crowed. "I have been looking forward to meeting you for some time now. I see you're as beautiful as they claim."

Persephone felt like worms were inching along her skin as she listened to this guy speak, getting really intense incest vibes from him, which did not bring about good memories.

However, something that pissed her off was how she was referred to as the "little" sister. No, she was the _big_ sister, with only one real sibling, her little brother, and she would not be accepting of any siblings who thought they were her senior. She didn't even let Triton consider himself to be her big brother, just her brother. So this guy, with his stupid helmet, could go take a long walk off a short pier.

Persephone uncapped Riptide. "Let's skip the stupid banter and get to the part where I kill you and your dolphin friends."

Chrysaor cackled and drew his own sword. "Little girl, I've been besting the best swordsman long before you were in potty training. If you really want to fight me, just know that I'm going to beat you so badly you'll need someone to change your pants every time you see a sword."

"You need help, dude."

And after she was defeated in ten seconds after giving it her all, Persephone was enveloped by the same feelings and thoughts as when she was trapped in Phorcys' aquarium. Percy could own this guy better and faster than he had owned her, so if she was going to be the strongest big sister so that Percy had the support he needed, then she needed to be stronger than Chrysaor.

Funnily enough, she had just the tool to help.

Bringing out the crow-themed pocket watch, Persephone donned her Karas armor in a flash of light. She drew the katana with a twirl and a flourish, the blade whining as it sliced through the air. Chrysaor's face might've been hidden, but his body language spoke volumes of the sudden tension he felt. He attacked, and the second round was over far faster than the first.

Persephone diced him to pieces in the blink of an eye, afterimages of her sword lingering in the air for a brief instant due to how fast they were, and all it took to scatter the dolphins was a quick look at one of them, the glowing eyes of her helmet flashing. Powering down, Persephone happily wrapped her arms around Annabeth, kissing her full on the mouth in front of everyone.

She proceeded to sink Chrysaor's ship, as an insurance policy for Dionysus's help in the coming battle with the twins, Otis and Ephialtes.

The next big roadblock was Hercules at the mouth of the Mediterranean, but Jason and Piper handled that as well as could be expected given demigod fortune, and after that was nothing but smooth sailing to Old Rome. Upon arrival and touchdown, Hazel, Frank, and Leo went off to search for Nico and Bianca, who had tried to close the Doors of Death in Tartarus by themselves, failed, and ended up captured. Hedge stayed to guard the ship along with Piper and Jason, while Persephone and Annabeth went together on the first main leg of the Mark of Athena.

They had one last date together at a restaurant, the waiter trying and failing and keeping his suspicions of their gayness at bay, and after one more kiss and the promise of a great night together upon reunification, Annabeth was whisked away on a moped with Audrey Peck and Gregory Hepburn. Persephone returned to the ship, and she, Piper and Jason went off to find where the giants were holed up, making their final preparations for their big party.

After being dropped off by Tiberinus and Rhea Silvia, Annabeth took a deep breath, ready to face her greatest challenge yet—besides redesigning Olympus after the battle between Kronos and Percy, and conquering said demigod's big sister—and turned around. She promptly jumped right of her skin with a poorly stifled squawk.

"Hey," Percy casually greeted, leaning against the entrance, smoking a cigarette.

With a racing heart, Annabeth managed a few broken syllables. "Who—huh—wha—you—how—sis—huh—wha—?"

Was this _real_? Was this actually happening? Was he really here? Was this just an illusion? Was this something only she was seeing? Or would any passersby see the cosplaying teenager? If he was here, how long? Was he going to help? What did he know about recent happenings? Oh, gods, was he going to kill her for finally getting her hands down Persephone's pants?

Annabeth found herself really wishing Arachne would come bursting out of the ground and roll her up in a web and then drag her back into her lair below in the earth; that seemed like much less stressful situation than her current one.

"I understand you finally got around to fucking my sister," came the casual statement, with all the energy of saying something like how the weather was nice.

Annabeth didn't trust herself to speak or move, and so she just stood there, not exactly sure if the sudden wetness blossoming around her shorts was pee or sweat. Considering how it also seemed to be spreading around her whole shirt, it was probably just sweat.

"Well, you better not break her heart." And then he was standing right next to her, not a hint of motion anywhere. He whispered in her ear, "If you do, I'll kill you in a way more painful than anything you've ever attempted to comprehend."

And then he was smiling happily. "Good luck with the spiders!"

A few seconds passed with nothing happening, and Annabeth finally hazarded a few looks around. She was alone. Swallowing, not entirely trusting what she was seeing, she cautiously stepped forward towards the entrance to Arachne's lair, feeling like she was in a horror movie and this was the part where the main character had a false sense of security and the slasher/monster was about to kill them.

After so many more seconds and her head remained on her shoulders and she wasn't stabbed or shot or a bag placed over her head or a chloroform cloth placed over her mouth, Annabeth started to creep forward and eventually made it down the steps to the old wooden door. She went to pick the lock on it, but the silhouette of her mother's owl burned to life on the door, and the door swung open.

Inside was a basement, the structure being a hodgepodge of modern and ancient. There were some creates, and out of a mixture of curiosity and mild desperation, she went over and was able to open the lid of one without any trouble.

She stared at the contents of the crate, not at all sure that what she was seeing.

Slowly and gingerly, as if handling a bomb with a hair trigger, Annabeth reached down inside and pulled out one of several purple/pink packages of Goodnites, the visage of some girl innocently smiling up at the world from under her covers as if her face wasn't slapped onto millions of bags of glorified diapers. Annabeth stared at the package in her hand, turning it over and examining every bit. The small text was difficult to decipher with her dyslexia, and her fear and anxiety due to the situation at hand was not helping.

She was trying to figure out if this was some trick or if these had some kind of superpowers to them or magical properties.

If they did, Annabeth couldn't discern any, and when she looked back into the crate, she noticed the note.

She picked it up and held it to her face. Conveniently, it was written in Ancient Greek and looked like a fairly recently written piece.

_Relax and have fun with things. You promised my sister a date after this was over, and kicking Arachne's ass will be that much harder tense, wound up, and freaking out._

_Besides, with these, you won't have to worry about a pre-battle bathroom trip._

_:P_

_-Percy_

_P.S. Persephone's going to an aunt._

Annabeth gasped when she read the post script, and figured that made her an aunt as well, since she already had the wedding between her and Persephone planned out, having performed the traditional Greek proposal by tossing and apple to her beloved the other day, an apple that Persephone caught. Annabeth smiled in remembrance of the lost look on the sea princess's face when she (Annabeth) beamed in knowing excitement when the apple was snagged out of the air.

Thinking of being married to Persephone brought such a humongous surge of happiness that all the fear she was feeling right now completely and totally evaporated, leaving nothing but warm bubbles surging through her. Annabeth felt so happy right now it felt stupid.

She was feeling so happy and confident that she thought to herself _What the heck? Why not? _and tore open the package of Goodnites. After maneuvering her shoes through the leg holes, Annabeth pulled the "nighttime underwear" into place over her shorts. It didn't fit correctly, but that didn't matter.

She went over to a cracked and dirty mirror, but there was enough visibility to it that she could see herself, and she laughed out loud at how absolutely ridiculous she looked.

Here she was, embarking on perhaps the most dangerous quest any child of Athena could undertake, a quest that resulted in the deaths of dozens of her siblings over the course of the centuries, and instead of being decked out in the finest armor, bearing the finest weapons, she was wearing a diaper over her shorts. The foil between the situation and the ridiculousness brought forth another round of sunshine-like warmth.

Nodding to herself, confident in her abilities and already thinking of tactical uses for her Goodnite—completely and totaling excluding its _intended _use, as she would pop a squat long before she intentionally wet herself. Besides, wearing it over her shorts as she was, she doubted that would even work.—and determined to see this to the end and beyond so that she could deliver the great news to Persephone about Naruko being pregnant, Annabeth headed into the darkness, ready to make Arachne just another notch in her lipstick case.

A sobering, sad thought hit her just before she entered the Mark. Shin'en's "gift" was not so random. Annabeth still distinctly recalled the twins' sixteenth birthday, going down Percy's memory lane, seeing the horrifying Blood War and the atrocities that he and Yūrei committed, the trauma he went through, all the dimensional stuff thereafter the Chunin Exam, and perhaps most importantly, that other world with the Other Her and Asteria.

Annabeth wasn't sure if Asteria would be more appropriately considered to be Other Percy or Other Persephone, but she tried not to dwell on that and instead focused on her other self.

Amazingly just as smart, despite not having the benefit of Athena's brains, and grew up much the same as Annabeth did. Borderline neglectful parents, swept aside for younger, idiotic, twin half-brothers, but the similarities ended just about there. No running away, no Luke and Thalia, no monsters, obviously, and all the people in Annabeth's life that she called friend were but mere acquaintances in that other one, with the only real friends there being the nurse at the middle school, and Asteria…up until Percy showed up.

Of course, the biggest difference was the psychological hiccup of a comfort blanket that was the pull-ups.

Driven by the desire to _know and understand _just about everything out there, Annabeth had done her research based on what she had seen, and she come up with no conclusive answers or any revolutionary new information. In her search to understand why anybody would willingly engage in similar behavior displayed by her counterpart, Annabeth reran across Freud and his psychosexual theories, among which was psychosexual infantilism, which didn't fit, and thanks to Circe's potion, which Reyna confirmed heightened her sex drive to the point that all fetishes and kinks were on the table, Annabeth knew what ageplay and ABDL were—even having photos of such in the nude package she had sent Persephone to experiment with, which they were only just now getting around to in earnest thanks to the princess's newfound sexual confidence—and those didn't fit either, as Other Annabeth, from Shin'en's memories, displayed no sexual behavior whatsoever in wearing a pull-up.

She even displayed heavy disdain, finding it humiliating and unbecoming of someone as smart and strong as she was, showing that she also suffered from the fatal flaw of pride. Towards the end of the memories, Other Annabeth had even stated that she was breaking away from wearing, only doing so when on her period due to her menorrhagia, which actually made sense because a lesser known official function of Depends was actually for heavy menstrual flow.

If Annabeth recalled correctly, there had been a comment thrown in conversation that Other Annabeth had tried Depends, and it didn't work out very well, so she stuck with the Goodnites.

The daughter of Athena shuddered at the thought, and was very thankful that she didn't have to use such products for her own period.

As for the real significance of Shin'en somehow leaving a crateful of Goodnites with Annabeth's name on them…he loved her. He loved the Other Annabeth so much that in his grief over her suicide, he let loose an emotional flood so great that it wiped out billions upon billions of trillions upon trillions of lives. He was probably just projecting that of love of Other Annabeth onto her, using her as a proxy for his feelings, just a substitute, but Annabeth just didn't feel that was right.

He loved his big sister, dearly, even if he wouldn't show it or admit it.

By transient property, he _had_ to love Annabeth too, and that crate of pull-ups was the best way he could find to show it. It was silly and stupid and needed tons of work and refinement…or maybe it didn't. Maybe Shin'en exactly what he was doing. Maybe these pull-ups had some spell or some jutsu layered into them set to activate in the event things went south, and maybe they didn't. Maybe they didn't have a single physical property to them besides looking cute and being able to absorb urine and contain odors.

But they certainly had a mental effect.

Just putting one on had made Annabeth feel so silly that her worries instantly melted away. Her confidence soared in the absence of fear, and beyond just seeing her girlfriend again, she was a messenger now, a carrier of crucial, crucial information. As far as she knew, anything down this hole had been stuck here forever, and no idea what a Goodnite was; that made it easy to come up with lies and deceptions, providing a tactical advantage.

Annabeth nodded to herself again.

She had confidence, she had determination, she had something to prove, she had a dream from another dimension to see fulfilled: a happy life married to her beloved.

So, with Persephone, Percy, Other Annabeth, Asteria, Athena, her friends, family, and a whole bunch of others in her mind, the burning will to see them again in the living world coursing through her spirit, the Wise Girl entered the spider's lair.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Annabeth Chase," a voice rasped from the shadows of the cave.

The demigod in question turned her attention away from the humongous ivory statue of her mother, dressed in a golden toga, a shield at her side, the goddess Nike held in her hand.

"Arachne."

A sound like a bouncing swarm of bees descended from the shadows, and into the light of the web-covered Athena Parthenos came the horrible monster herself. Her upper body was only halfway human, a black rag covering her modesty, her fingers being black, wicked talons, her eyes being pure black, with other sets of eyes around her scalp. Her lower jaw was a set of mandibles, needle-like teeth poking down from her upper jaw, though her hair was remarkably human. Everything from the waist down was humongous spider, with a huge, bulbous abdomen, a red hourglass sigil on top, and thick segmented legs lined with dagger-sized barbs.

"Long have I waited for the day that you would arrive in my lair, the first and last child of Athena to do so. Prepare yourself, for I—what are you _wearing_?"

Keeping a straight face, Annabeth told the same lie she had told the ghosts that she buried. "These are my Power Pants. They give me dominion over the past, present, and the future. I know what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen."

"Your…_Power Pants_? They look like the same garment used by children who soil themselves and require cleaning and changing!"

Annabeth wondered how a creature locked away in some catacombs would know what a modern diaper looked like, but she stayed true to the plan, internally laughing at this whole situation.

"Yes, they do look like a diaper, but the underestimation you show to my Power Pants is the same underestimation shown by many others, and all of them have died at my hands. Surely someone as brilliant and creative as you will not idiotically add her name to the list?"

"No…" Arachne scuttled around, clearly rethinking her whole strategy due to threat of the Power Pants.

"Good, that gives us time to communicate, one legend to another."

"Legend? You consider yourself a legend? You consider me a _legend_?"

"I consider you to be _legendary_. You're the only one in four thousand years to beat my mother in a weaving contest."

"Ah-ha! Finally, recognition of my great victory, by Athena's cursed _spawn_ no less!"

'_Dumbass. Whether you won or not is irrelevant. Pissing off a goddess, especially at the height of their power, was stupid.'_

"Indeed. In the private conversations I've had with Mom, in the past, she once grudgingly admitted that your works were better, though she said only _slightly_."

Arachne huffed.

"Mom even kept some of your works," Annabeth continued. "When Kronos attacked Olympus, in the wake of the destruction, I was appointed architect. When I got to Mom's temple, she showed me your pieces, magically preserved, of course, and said she used them as reference to perfect her own technique."

In the light of the Parthenos, Arachne's many spider eyes glittered happily. "She does?"

The way the monster said that, hopeful, with undertones of something else, made Annabeth wonder if there wasn't a deeper, secret history between the two weavers. She kept her disgusted shudder under wraps at the thought of Arachne as potentially being her stepmother, and figured that if the Multiverse Theory held true in all aspects, then not only was there a dimension out there as described, but there was even one where Annabeth was the daughter of Arachne herself, and even more disgustingly, her consort.

It took all the imaginary power of her Power Pants to keep Annabeth's vomit in her stomach at the thought of having sex with the spider before her.

"Yes. I examined some of your pieces myself when I entered—"

"I know. I was watching you."

"—and I thought that they were very brilliantly done myself. Perhaps you could show me some more of your work, before we do battle?"

"Of course, of course," Arachne chittered happily, anticipation of a fight that would never come literally dripping from her mouth. "An artist always likes to see appreciation for their work, even if it's from dinner."

Annabeth followed Arachne across the cavern, mentally calculating the odds of executing a successful lethal sneak attack with her dagger. With the numbers stacking up monumentally against her, the blonde forewent an attack and instead continued with her current stalling tactic of making Arachne dance to her tune.

Arachne showed Annabeth some of her best pieces, explaining the color for the tapestries came from her own magic. There was art of famous battles across history, copies of world-famous paintings that had been redone with breathtaking detail, far better than the originals, and there were even pieces of Annabeth's life, something that was disturbing.

Her as a boy, hiding from monsters. Her and Persephone in the back of the Kindness International truck when they were younger. Her sleeping on Circe's couch, recovering from the transformative potion. Her and Persephone dancing at Westover Hall, then them navigating the Labyrinth, and one tapestry sucked the breath out of Annabeth's lungs:

Her and her girlfriend sharing their underwater kiss on Persephone's sixteenth birthday.

"Half-blood are not the only ones with _dreams_," Arachne said. "I have been watching you for a long, long time. I'm actually quite happy you decided to remain as a girl after all these years, because now history will tell of the _daughter_ of Athena that made it all the way to my lair, when all of the _sons_ could not. Chaos knows our history has enough _male_ accomplishments."

Facing away from the spider, Annabeth was able to safely roll her eyes without incurring wrath.

However, mid-eyeroll, she saw something, another tapestry, off to the side, away from all of the others.

"What's…this one?"

Annabeth approached this tapestry, and she could feel the air get heavier. Dread steadily crept into her, and a foreboding, ominous feeling began to wrap around her. She felt Arachne's presence, and she felt the spider's own trepidation regarding this piece of art; Annabeth felt confusion from the monster, and even an amount of fear, though whether the fear stemmed from the confusion—confusion over what, Annabeth couldn't tell—or fear from something else, was unknown.

Now standing before the tapestry, the Athena Parthenos, a semi-sentient statue empowered with incredible magic, made effort to shine its light over to this part of the cavern when it hadn't done so before. What Annabeth saw made her blood freeze.

"I call this the _Seven Masters_," Arachne said quietly. "I was simply struck by Inspiration one day, many years ago, and I made this. I do not know what it means."

The _Seven Master_ was a half-circle piece, the flat being at the bottom. There were six lines going from the bottom middle of the shape to the arc, all evenly spaced, to create seven even sections.

The bottom left seemed to be a rusted truss bridge in the daytime, and hanging from its crossbeam was an unoccupied noose. Underneath the noose was a hazy figure, most of their top being obscured by the afternoon sun. What was visible to Annabeth was that the figure was standing with their legs apart, wearing shorts that could probably be cut longer, combat boots, and their arms were held at an angle against their sides, black shapes in the hands that were probably guns.

The bottom right was separated into its own mini-sections, starting from the left and going right, each section beautifully fading into the next. Going left to right, Annabeth saw a fortress built into a mountain, then the visage of Castel St. Angelo, then the mainmast of a sailing ship, then Notre Dame Cathedral, then Big Ben, then a WWI Zeppelin blimp, which faded seamlessly into the side silhouette of a person's head, with chin and nose visible, and a beaked hood, that whole last part being all black against a white backdrop.

The middle left was a disturbing and creepy mix of dark red and black. The only thing in this panel was a severed arm, blood splashing out from where the shoulder joint was at. In the hand's grasp was a gleaming scalpel with a red blade, and along the top of the arm were twelve red slashes, obviously cuts. Annabeth swallowed heavily.

The middle right reminded the blonde of the cover art of the Queen album _Bohemian Rhapsody_. There were three faces, but they were tilted at such an angle that only their mouths could be seen, the unseen light source at the bottom throwing the res of their faces into shadow. However, where the eyes of these faces would be were glowing green lights, little veins spreading out in all directions from the eyes. Spreading through the rest of the panel was a swirl of black and green, and based on the way they were weaved together, it looked like a mass of sleek tentacles.

The last three panels made Annabeth's skin crawl, all of her ominous feelings multiplying a hundredfold.

The top left, putting it at the right hand of the middle panel, depicted a figure in a crouch atop a mass of shapes, the light hitting the shapes in such a way that oblong heads, claws, tails, and gleaming teeth were visible, and within those open maws of the indistinct creatures appeared to be a tongue with a mouth at its end. The figure atop appeared to be humanoid, crouched forward as if ready to pounce, putting their weight on their right hand, while in their left appeared to be a two-sided spear held outward, two prongs sprouting at the spear's handle on either side. A tail appeared to be in the air behind them, bent in an "S" shape.

The top right panel depicted a victorious conqueror, an old-looking city in flames behind him. The conqueror himself stood tall, weaved into the same pose as Conan the Barbarian, with a body mass of nearly identical muscle. However, this warrior was wearing golden shin guards, a white ceremonial kilt with a golden belt, a gold breastplate like the Egyptians used to wear, and had a magnificent black cape with a royale purple interior splayed out behind him. He held his left arm aloft, a massive, gleaming claymore in his hand. Like the other faces, his was indistinct, though he had a glowing silver left eye, and a glowing sea-green right eye.

The middle panel took the cake for being the scariest, most unsettling piece of the tapestry.

The whole panel was dedicated to but a single figure, being a close-up of them. Staring at the black "V" of the bottom, the darkness faded into the visage of what Annabeth guessed was a young man with fair skin. The whole image was done in a hazy manner, looking more like a painting than a tapestry, so the facial features were indistinct was customary of this whole piece. However, there were distinct, glowing red eyes against white sclera, a third eye on the forehead, vertically aligned as opposed to the human horizontal, and this eye was big and a deep, emerald green. The hair was black and all standing straight up, revealing what looked like small horns right at the hairline. There appeared to be a scarlet sunset behind this figure, burning the sky black and making the clouds aflame with red fire.

"You called this…the _Seven Masters_…masters of what?" Annabeth asked with trepidation.

Arachne didn't answer, but she didn't have to. A disembodied voice softly echoed through the cavern.

_Death._

"Lord Erebus?" Arachne breathed.

Before Annabeth could fully comprehend the possibility that she had just come into limited contact the Primordial of Darkness, the ceiling exploded, and Arachne went tumbling into the void below in a shower of rubble as the floor collapsed from the shockwave.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**I'm going to call it here. Didn't cover as much as I wanted to, but I went into more detail with certain scenes that I didn't really intend to, such as theses last ones with Annabeth.**_

_**Ten points to whoever can figure out what the **__**Seven Masters**__** is about.**_

_**How about Persephone, eh? Hit you guys with a surprise yuri lime and an 11k+ chapter roughly four days after the last one. You may consider me the Easter Bunny.**_

_**Anyway, certainly, the next chapter will wrap up the HoO arc, and then we're back with Shin'en in the **__**Infinite Tsukuyomi**__**.**_

_**Congratulations to those that figured it out beforehand.**_

_**Also, like I said up top, it's really cute how you guys think there's going to this happy ending with Persephone being an aunt, Shin'en and Naruko being married, etc.…**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	9. An Apple to Say I Do

_An Apple to Say "I Do"_

_**Ten points are awarded to:**_

_**Zen-Aku the Spirit Wolf**_

_**Kyunin9**_

_**Crazy9087**_

_**Jaybird9876**_

_**ayanminhamkhan77**_

_**shadowmere388**_

_**Freakofnature65**_

_**Calamity J**_

_**As for a happy ending…I'll think about it. Maybe I'll put it to a vote on my profile.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't own Naruto or PJO

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Annabeth crossed her arms. "What?"

"What do you mean _what_?" Persephone snapped. "We could've gone to literally any place in the world after we got back together, and you pick _Tartarus_ for our date night?"

"Well, _excuse me_…I heard that it had lovely glass beaches right on the shore of the weeping river, and thought it would be _romantic_."

Persephone threw her arms over her head. "_How_ is _this_ romantic!? The air smells worse than your butthole after burrito night, there's glass poking my butt, and worst of all: _there's no bathrooms!_ What are we going to do when we have to poop, huh? Pretty sure there aren't bathrooms in Tartarus, and if there are, they're probably super-duper nasty, and the toilets are probably some kind of potty monster thingy that'll bite our butts and then spit dirty water at us or something."

Annabeth had to take a moment to try and figure out if Persephone was being serious, or was just trying to cope with the stress of being in Hell.

"I guess you'll just have show everyone what a successfully potty-trained big girl you are, and _hold it_, or you'll have to pop a squat somewhere."

"Easy for you to say, you're wearing a diaper!"

"I'll have you know that these are my _Power Pants_," Annabeth said with a holier-than-thou tone, "and I have been trained to hold my poop in for days if need be. If you would prefer, _you_ can have my Power Pants. They might give you the boost you need to not have an accident while we enjoy our date in the wonderful locale of Tartarus."

"Ew, no, you farted in it."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. She didn't know if Persephone was really this nonchalant about their dire circumstances, or was just trying to play it off with humor and not have a complete breakdown, but all jokes aside they needed to get serious and figure out what they were going to do with themselves.

"Well, Nico and Bianca said that the Doors of Death were here in Tartarus," Persephone said. "They tried to close the Doors themselves but failed, which was why they ended up in a stupid pot. Bianca told me they actually found the Doors, where Tartarus' heart is, and that the rivers are his blood. So, we just have to follow the rivers to the heart, where they all come from."

"Not to mention the thousands of monsters that'll be there, trying to get back to the mortal world, and gods know how many we'll have to fight on the way there. Persephone, this is _Tartarus_. This is where monsters, Titans, Giants, and gods come to reform after they've been killed. Persephone…we could run into Ares and Aphrodite down here, and we've got no one to help us fight them."

For the first time in a long time, Annabeth saw a flash of actual fear run through her girlfriend's beautiful eyes, and she instantly felt horrible for bringing up the possibilities, but this situation was real. This was serious, dangerous, and lethal. Their lives were on the line like never before, and there was zero guarantee they'd make it through this. Nico and Bianca had gotten lucky and were chosen to be bait for the Seven demigods, Annabeth and Persephone might not be so lucky.

Annabeth was not holding out hope that Percy was going to show up for a last-minute scene of pure epicness.

Thinking of Percy made Annabeth remember some crucial news that she had just recently forgotten on account of being dragged into this horrible pit by a sneaky web. Granted, the current situation was probably not the best one to share this information, as they needed to be focused on surviving, finding the Doors, and then closing them, but Annabeth would be loath to keep her secrets, especially if they died here.

Especially because she didn't know what would happen to their souls if they did die here.

"Oh, Persephone?"

"Yeah?"

"You're going to be an aunt."

Annabeth received a blank stare for a little while, and then Persephone growled in annoyance.

"Seriously? An ant? What god did I piss off this time that's going to turn me into an _ant_? Can they at least wait until this thing with Gaea is over so I can focus on fighting them before they turn me into an ant? Is that a possibility?"

Annabeth couldn't stop the giggle that erupted from her. "You are _such_ a Seaweed Brain! Not _ant _as in A-N-T, _aunt_." This time, she put the hard "awe" sound in it. "As in A-U-N-T. Percy's having kids with Naruko—she's pregnant with your niece and/or nephew!"

Persephone adopted another blank stare, and Annabeth feared she was going to have to explain the biological connection between you and the children of your sibling, but then Persephone's face glowed like a star and she let out the loudest, most excited squeal Annabeth had ever heard, and she had heard the daughters of Aphrodite after they received a makeup kit from the mother…before Shin'en crushed her head under his foot.

"I'm gonna be an au~nt! I'm gonna be an au~nt!" Persephone sang as she danced and flitted around.

Over there, on top of the River Cocytus, the river's corresponding nymph slowly popped her head out of her domain, endlessly shocked that anyone could exhibit so much happiness after being in her embrace.

Persephone's joy was so infectious that Annabeth found herself smiling broadly, and she decided to spill more good news.

"It's not just _you_ that's going to be an aunt, but me too."

Persephone stopped in her dance and blinked. "Is one of your sisters pregnant or something?"

"Nope," Annabeth smiled. "You being an aunt makes me an aunt by marriage."

"By marriage…?" Persephone asked confused, and then she lit up like a firework's grand finale. "WE'RE GETTING MARRIED! Wait—when are we getting married? I haven't proposed to you yet."

Annabeth's heart soared at the "yet" part, implying that Persephone intended to ask for her hand sometime in the future.

"I suppose the _when _will be after this quest, as for the proposing…well, everyone knows _I _wear the pants in this relationship-"

"And over those pants is a diaper," Persephone said, unimpressed.

Annabeth opened her mouth, and then shut it. She promptly tore away the sides of her Power Pants and discarded the underwear, not really caring about littering in Tartarus.

"Anyway. I proposed to you actually yesterday."

"You did? I don't remember getting a ring."

Annabeth grinned in her trademark _I know something you don't _way. "In our culture, Ancient Greek, when someone loves another, they'll toss that person an apple as a way of proposing. If the person catches the apple, that means they accept the proposal."

"When you woke me up for breakfast yesterday by throwing an apple at my head…"

"Yep, and you caught it." Annabeth grinned. "I can't wait to see my lovely bride in her dress."

"What makes you think I'm gonna wear a dress? I might show up with what I've got on right now."

"Unacceptable. I can smell your dirty panties from up here."

"_No_, that's just because you still have the smell of my _other_ dirty panties stuck in your nose from when you were sniffing all over them."

Annabeth flushed a little at having been caught panty sniffing.

"Besides, in my defense, I haven't had time to change my clothes since almost drowning because of some hags, and fighting Otis and Ephialtes in the Colosseum. And to be fair, you kind of smell like butthole too."

"Thank you, my fiancé, for your kind words."

Persephone beamed, and then mashed her lips against Annabeth's. Initially shocked, the blonde closed her eyes and melted into the kiss, finding, slender, muscular arms wrap around her waist and pull her close to their owner. In turn, she wrapped her arms around Persephone's neck. Then they just held each other, kissing and embracing.

Persephone broke the kiss and rested her forehead against Annabeth's. "I love you, and I can't wait to get married—I don't know where, because I'm pretty sure that's illegal—but I can't wait. I expect a _real_ proposal though, with a ring."

"Anything you want, my beautiful sea princess."

Persephone couldn't stop the soft little mewl that escaped her at the new nick name.

So there they were, down in what basically amounted to be Hell, both of them beyond elated at the prospect of being aunts to Percy and Naruko's children, and getting married on top of that, embracing and full of hope for a wonderful future together, when the whole moment came to an absolute crushing halt.

_What is this? _a dark voice echoed over the terrain.

The red clouds in the sky stopped in place, pieces of glass started tumbling over each other, and the jagged mountains seemed to start moving. The fiery fissures seemed to go out, and everything got cold, so terribly, unbelievably cold that the girls started to shiver, their teeth chattering despite being huddled so close.

_Happiness in my domain? Unacceptable. The only things I will allow are misery and suffering._

Before the demigods rose the most imposing, horrifying, godlike being they had ever seen in their lives, and they had stood before the sum total of the Olympian Council when they were all ready for war. This being made the gods like look playground bullies.

It was impossible to tell just how big this god was, with the landscape folding around him, taking away all measures. The whole body was shrouded in a humongous, rippling, flowing black cloth. Upon the shoulders were huge, rounded pauldrons, with long, wicked spikes emerging across the curvature. Around the neck was a massive necklace of various skulls. The head was covered by an ornate helmet, upon the top was a decoration reminisce of dragon's wings splayed upward. No face was visible, just darkness, but where the eyes would've been were two slanted, serious, evil crimson lights. To finish the whole look, this being was covered in a neon green fire, the helmet glowing just as red as the eyes.

"Tartarus," Persephone whispered.

Spatial awareness suddenly kicked in, and she realized that they were no longer on the glass-shard bank of the River Cocytus, but were instead upon a large, fleshy mound that was rhythmically glowing. Directly behind her and Annabeth was a chained down elevator, and all around them were monsters. Thousands, tens of thousands, perhaps even _millions_. Not to mention the major mythological figures like the Titans and Giants.

Despair settled on Persephone's shoulders, as well as a grim reality: she was going to die here.

Against a Primordial in his own domain, with backup from an uncountable number of monsters and a battalion of Titans and Giants…for all his power, Persephone doubted even Percy would win against this many powerful foes.

"Persephone?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"To the death?"

"Was is it ever going to be any other way?"

"Nope."

They were going to die here, but at least they were going to do so on their feet with their weapons out. Persephone uncapped Riptide, shaking like a leaf, and Annabeth produced her dagger, fairing no better. The fact that she could see Arachne amongst the horde, salivating and snarling right at her, did not help.

_Incredible. You would raise weapons against me? Such will. I will remember the two of you, Persephone Jackson, Annabeth Chase._

The neon green fire wreathing Tartarus suddenly surged up around him in an inferno, and the flames rushed forward. Persephone knew she could handle the heat, having easily survived being doused in literal lava by telekhines three years ago, but this was not the kind of fire that killed you because it was hot.

'_Sorry Percy, sorry Mom, sorry Paul. I'll be waiting.'_

The fire roared its approach, and the two demigoddesses stood defiantly before it as they were consumed.

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Thunderous, deafening cheers erupted from all over the pit as Persephone and Annabeth died at the hands of their lord and master given the current circumstances.

Tartarus himself felt no pleasure in killing a couple of half-bloods. It was a waste of his infinite time to expel enough energy to take a physical form and exercise physical abilities just to kill something as weak as demigods. He could swallow whole the Titans and everything crawling across his body in the blink of an eye—such was his sovereign power over his own domain. He could've simply changed what the air flowing across him was to one of any number of poisons, all of them, should he have desired, and then simply watch as the females choked to death.

He could've made the ground a vat of acid that they fell into and melted, screaming and thrashing as they dissolved, painfully…and then he could've brought them back. There was no Thanatos here to bring their souls to the Underworld, the winged god wouldn't be so foolish as to tread in the domain of Tartarus. Here, the females' souls would belong to him for eternity, his to do with as he pleased.

Or they would've, had his sister not made the request that the females be captured instead, their blood carrying with it the intended use of her physical resurrection. Considering his own children were deeply involved with this, and he did feel some affection for his sons, Tartarus had agreed. The whole thing with the fire was just a little show to reward his minions for all of their struggle and strife against the "heroes."

Tartarus canceled his power, and was rather surprised to see Persephone and Annabeth still there, their eyes shut tight as they held onto one another. The cause for their survival was instantly obvious, because he was standing right in front of the females.

Dressed in a black shirt with long sleeves, black pants and shoes, all of it made with no mortal material. His skin was pale as snow, his hair grey, flat, wavy, stringy, and parted to either side of his skull. His eyes were half-lidded and lazy, his lips thing, his jaw sharp and his nose fine.

_Erebus_, Tartarus said.

"Dear brother," the god of darkness said, voice devoid of warmth, affection, or any emotion, really.

Persephone and Annabeth felt like they were going to combust in the presence of _two_ Primordials.

"I'm afraid that I cannot let you do with these ones as you intended for our sister's machinations."

_And why would you do this?_

"Persephone's sibling is of great interest to me, and considering what is to come, I have decided that it is best that she remains out of Gaea's possession for now. If you disagree, I am more than willing to engage in combat."

Tartarus' glowing eyes got all the brighter, but there was no feeling of anticipation or excitement that anyone could tell, nor was there anger or disdain.

_It has indeed been many millennia since we have fought with one another_.

"Not since our training with Father."

"Hey!"

Tartarus and Erebus turned their attention to Persephone, who, in the face of apparently something going with her brother, found enough courage, strength, bravado and will to actually _speak_ in the presence of two Primordial gods, both of which were in their elements, with Tartarus being in Tartarus, and since this place was undeniably _dark_, Erebus was also right at home.

"_You_," Persephone jabbed a finger at the second oldest son of Chaos, the first being Chronus, god of time, "are talking about Percy as if he's in a whole lot of trouble."

"In a way, he very much is."

"Explain," Persephone said pointedly, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.

Annabeth was absolutely mortified, wishing her girlfriend's head wasn't full of seaweed.

Since Erebus didn't "roll like that," as the modern phrase went, he didn't turn Persephone into something unnatural for her rudeness, but instead gave her the vague version of things.

"Your brother is currently dreaming a wonderful dream, one that will eventually kill him if he does not wake. However, what is required to wake him will make him wish for death all the same."

Persephone's tapping foot stopped and she stared at Erebus for a while, until she let out a frustrated screech, throwing her head back as she grabbed fistfuls of hair.

"_Why_ are all you gods so vague and mysterious!? Why can't you just talk straight and cut right to the point!?"

_I like this one. She has spirit._

"Indeed, she does. She is spoken for, however."

_Easily remedied, not that this has ever been an obstacle before._

"Brother," Erebus chided. "Be respectful."

_As you wish_.

"Persephone," the dark god called, cutting the young woman off mid-tirade.

"_What_!?"

"My blessings upon your family."

Erebus put a hand to his mouth and performed an act similar to blowing a kiss. Persephone and Annabeth were picked off their feet and gently set into the elevator, the doors shutting with a soft ding. The chains holding the Doors of Death snapped, and the magical contraption vanished with in a sparkling poof.

_And now what should we do with ourselves? It's very rare that you and I…visit._

"An unfortunate happening to be sure. I recommend that we engage in less than gentlemanly activities given our extensive audience of refuse."

_I shall take those on the left, and you may have the ones on the right._

A wicked mace appeared in a flash of neon green fire, and a hand emerged from the rippling cloak that Tartarus wore to grasp the evil weapon. The length of a whip slithered out of Erebus' sleeve, and the dark god had on his face a lazy little smile.

"What does the winner of this contest receive?"

_Bragging rights._

"Then prepare for millennia of being bragged upon."

_Go lick your sister's ass._

"Go fuck a goat."

_Do I look Muslim to you?_

Erebus cracked his whip, obliterating Hyperion and Krios in the blink of an eye, releasing a shockwave that ripped apart miles of land behind where the Titans once were.

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The whole elevator ride up, Persephone and Annabeth were endlessly confused as to what in the Hades had just happened, but were also really happy that it was over, and that they didn't have to go running through the whole pit, barely surviving by the skin of their teeth. Granted, standing before _the_ Tartarus had been the scariest, most horrifying moment in their lives, like all of their nightmares and fears had come back at once, ready to devour them.

More than just that, but they had been terrified at their own powerlessness. For all of their skills and abilities, their accomplishments, feats, and strengths, what was any of that to Tartarus? The very pit itself was the god's body, his own sovereign territory just like the Earth belonged to Gaea, the sky to Ouranos, and he could do down there what he pleased. The very breaths they took down there were but Tartarus' mercy, and the glass beach they had stood on, when they were talking about getting married and being aunts, that beach was only like that because Tartarus allowed it.

Those glass shards could've become creatures, or it could've been actual sand, or it could've turned to fire or lava under their very feet. The point was that Tartarus could've wasted them the very second they entered his atmosphere, could've just _thought it_, and they would've died. _That_ was a scary feeling; all that you were, so easily ended by someone else, someone whose power so far outstripped yours that it wasn't even funny.

Thinking along those lines made Persephone wonder if she shouldn't start getting into the Bible, but if she recalled correctly, that religion wasn't too big on a couple of girls having sex and getting married, and so it was probably a good idea to abstain and hope for the best when the time came. She'd talk more with Annabeth on it later.

Right now, she was happy to be alive with her girlfriend—though maybe fiancé was a better description now—and she was worried. Erebus had spoken about Percy being in some kind of killing dream, and that if he woke up from it, he'd wish to die all the same. _That _was Persephone's main focus right now.

She didn't care about the quest, Gaea, the world, the giants, anything. To an extent, she didn't even care about her technical engagement to Annabeth.

When the elevator dinged and opened, revealing a shadowy mass of a giant currently engaged in battle with Hazel and Leo, Persephone brandished her sword and blitzed in, holding her breath.

"What!?" the giant bellowed.

Persephone charged into the clouds, so focused and determined on her brother's safety that the poisonous and hypnotic effects of Clytius' personal atmosphere didn't even register. With two slashes of Riptide, she severed the Achilles tendons in the giant's feet, and he went tumbling forward with a pained howl. Planting and pivoting, Persephone ran all the way around the giant and brought her sword down on his neck, nearly severing the head.

Hecate appeared in that moment, and slammed her golden torches on Clytius' skull so hard the bone crumpled like an eggshell.

The witch goddess looked at Hazel. "Excellent job. Tell my kids I said hi and that I love them."

"You got it."

Hecate vanished, and that was when Frank, Piper and Jason burst in. Their jaws dropped at seeing Persephone, _ichor_ splattered on her.

"Sup, guys? Did Annabeth and I miss anything?"

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After recounting their brief tenure in Tartarus, meeting the god of the pit himself and feeling so powerless and helpless that it was terrifying, their near-death at the hands of the god, only to be saved by Erebus, and how that they were technically engaged now, which brought forth rounds of cheering and congratulations, the rest of the Seven recounted their own adventures. After a brief, stress-free picnic to commemorate their reunification, it was decided that Hedge, Nico, and Bianca, along with Reyna, who had flown to Epirus, Greece all by herself on a pegasus, would be performing a whole bunch of mass shadow jumps to get the Athena Parthenos back to Camp Half-Blood due to a demigod by the name of Michael Kahale taking control of the legion as centurion of the First Cohort, since the kindhearted, dorky Octavian did not have the kind of respect necessary amongst his peers to lead the legion, especially when they were all tasting blood in the water.

The idea was that if the statue was brought back, hostilities would either cease, or Camp Half-Blood would have enough magical protection to withstand an assault.

Obviously, the Seven would be sailing for Athena to confront the giants and prevent the rise of Gaea, an operation that Persephone was going to be spearheading due to the apparent fact that he brother's life was on the line elsewhere, and while that was certainly her top priority, she did have enough presence of mind to appreciate tackling one problem at a time, especially when the first problem was already on hand and didn't require crossing dimensions.

And so, with fiery determination that was almost scary, Persephone pushed her peers across the country of Greece, laying the smackdown on any monster or rogue deity that was getting between her and her ultimate goal of rescuing her brother.

In the canon, the Seven stop by the island of Ithaca where Odysseus built his palace, and it's there that Jason, Piper, and Annabeth run into Hera, who tell them that the Straight of Corinth is so full of monsters and obstacles that their best bet for success would be to travel around the Peloponnese and seek the goddess Nike in the ruins of Olympia. After a whole bunch of convincing, and no small amount of touching to help in the convincing, in the privacy of her room, of course, Annabeth got Persephone to go along with that plan instead of charging through Corinth with ballistae blazing.

After getting to Olympia and subduing Nike, she victory goddess informed the quest that one of them was guaranteed to die, but there was this thing called the Physician's Cure that was banned due to the drama it caused when last used, but the ingredients were Pylosian Mint, the chained god's heartbeat, and the Curse of Delos.

It took even more convincing on Annabeth's part to where Persephone didn't just up and say "Fuck it, dying is an occupational hazard" and go flying straight to Athens, especially because Nike's exact warning was that one of four present demigod's at her capture was going to die, those four being Hazel, Frank, Leo, and Persephone. Annabeth was able to succeed in her convincing by reminding Persephone that she couldn't very well save Percy from whatever danger he was in if she was dead.

"I'll just fight my way out of the Underworld," Seph said stubbornly, her arms crossed over her boobs.

"The Doors of Death are closed."

"Don't care. I can take Cerberus, Thanatos, Charon and anyone else that gets in my way."

"Even your uncle, the sovereign ruler of the domain you're trying to escape from?"

"Yes."

"Persephone," Annabeth growled, "do _not_ be like this right now. Pull your head out of your smelly ass, and think clearly. You're no good to anyone _dead_, regardless of whether you can fight out of the Underworld or not."

"Fine," the sea child huffed. "We'll get the stupid medicine."

The Pylosian Mint was easy enough to gather, thanks to Frank's kin, but the chained god's heartbeat somewhere in Sparta was a bit more difficult thanks to Piper's dream about the Acropolis, where it was revealed that a giant was waiting in Sparta, and that Gaea needed the blood of a male and female demigod in order to wake, her chosen targets being Persephone and Annabeth, implying that the giants had a way to turn Annabeth back into a boy, a prospect she was not amused with.

Despite the possibility of reversing gender, it was Annabeth and Piper, in accordance to the latter's dream, that went into Sparta, eventually found the chained god, and ran into Mimas, the anti-Hephaestus giant whose amazing power was to thwart plans. In canon, this rendered Annabeth near helpless since she was all about plans and thinking, and it took Piper to rework the blonde's brain chemistry to incorporate just reacting to things, using her emotions to guide her instead of her mind.

In this story, Annabeth had done a lot of thinking with her emotions, and even engaged in actual sex with her girlfriend, fingering her, eating her out, and even bringing to the bed a magic strap-on that basically hooked up to the wearer's nervous system, so whatever the dildo felt, the wearer felt. For Annabeth, it was like having her dick back again. For Persephone, it was one hell of an experience, especially because one of the magical functions of the dildo was to take the cum that would go rushing from your vagina and instead send it shooting out of the dildo's shaft, just like a male ejaculation.

A feature that the girls took advantage of rather stupidly.

They might've been girls, and traditionally incapable of getting each other pregnant, but they were also demigoddesses, and therefore potentially susceptible to circumstances of unnatural conception. There was a _possibility_ they _could_ impregnate the other, and given the circumstances, being pregnant was not a good thing to be, fighting giants and monsters and trying to save the world from a major mythological threat.

In all those instances of sex, Annabeth had been trying to apply what she had learned in her studies of intercourse via the internet, through articles and porn. "Do _this_ thing to make your girl squirt!" "Studies have shown that _these_ things are guaranteed to make your girl have the best orgasm of her life!" "This is the Number One way to please your girl!" Annabeth had figured that it was best to read up on all of this, so that when the fateful time eventually came for her and Seph to get it on, she could wow and dazzle her girl and treat her like the queen that she was.

All of her studied techniques had been executed sloppily, or Persephone had just went along with it out of kindness but was like _What is she trying to do? _In the end, the best moments of sex they had was when Annabeth just went with things. She just gave over to her instincts and let her body please her girl.

With that kind of experience, against something like Mimas, whose strongest magical power was the disrupting of plans, he was no problem to handle between Annabeth and Piper, two girls who were quite adept at just going with things.

The next big episode of excitement came when trying to get to Delos, when the _Argo II_ found itself in the middle of an epic squall, one that Persephone identified as being unnatural since she couldn't simply make it stop with her authority over storms being the daughter of the Stormbringer. Since she could feel a presence below, she figured that this storm was being made by another rogue deity, and where she was sorely tempted to try wrangling the weather from their possession just like she had done with Phorcys and Chrysaor, with the way the ship was getting tossed around, Persephone figured it was best to tackle this problem at the source.

After making sure everyone was on deck and doing what they could, she hopped below the waves and went shooting into the depths, angling down to where there was a flashing green light, like a searchlight, periodically shining from the deep. Down, down, down Persephone went, seeing easily enough despite the darkness, and she found herself in one of her dad's old palaces.

It was beyond ran down, it was in total ruin, barely recognizable as a place that the mighty Poseidon once called home.

The probable cause for the destruction, and the certain cause for the storm, was this twenty-foot-tall woman wearing a beautiful blue gown, a belt of abalone shells holding it in place. Her hair was the same color and consistency of jellyfish tentacles, her skin white as an algae field, and her eyes were glowing brightly, like the lamps of an anglerfish.

And Persephone knew who this goddess was.

"Kymopoleia."

The goddess' face lit up and her smile was a but painful to look at because of how bad it was, like she had spent time practicing but couldn't quite get it down. "My baby sister knows who I am!"

Persephone cringed at being called "baby sister." Much like with Triton and Chrysaor, she did not appreciate it when her technical siblings called them her seniors. _She_ was the senior, senior to Percy, and she couldn't have anyone else above or else she'd be tempted to try and dump her burdens on them the way Percy needed to with her. She needed to be strong, and the idea of an older sibling implied an inherent dependency on them, an idea that Persephone didn't like.

That was why she only considered Triton to be her brother, not her _big _brother.

"Yeah, Dad and Triton told me about you."

"Did they? Did they tell you about how much they hate me and cast me out of the family? Did they tell you about, how after so many centuries of silence, they simply up and married me off to that oaf Briares, and then didn't bother ever checking in with me again, even when he was captured and then set free, by _you_?"

Persephone glared at her sister.

"Yeah, they told me all about how for fun, you'd go around the oceans sinking ships and battering the shorelines with your powers, killing people. They told me about whenever you were a kid, whenever you'd have a tantrum and destroy the whole palace, causing damage even to the city. They told me how wild and uncontrollable you were, about how you never made any attempt at behaving yourself, and about how _heartbroken_ they were when they finally had to cast you out in order to protect Atlantis and the mortals! They knew you were unhappy, alone, and hurting, and so the marriage to Briares was their stab at trying to fix all of that, hoping that a husband as strong and sturdy as a Hekatonkheires would be enough to handle your outbursts and still love you. It wasn't like Briares was going to unfaithful or anything, the poor guy was over the moon at the prospect of having someone to love, and love him back!"

Kym stared at her little sister, her mouth slightly agape. "You lie," she claimed, voice quiet and lacking.

"I swear it on the Styx that's how Dad and Amphitrite felt about you, and that Triton misses his rambunctious little sister."

The goddess of violent sea storms gasped, her lip trembling.

Really, Kymopoleia was just another hurting soul in this big wide world of injustice and cruelty. Being the young goddess that she was at the time, she didn't have a full grasp over her domains; anything that was enough to set off a child, which obviously could be _anything_, since toddlers operated on a notorious hair-trigger, was enough to set off Kym, only her tantrums and meltdowns packed enough power to blow up buildings. As she got older and her authority developed more, her maturity was lacking, and so her rebellious teenager years were spent as described, sinking ships and laying waste to the coasts.

It was her way of acting out, trying to get her parents to see and recognize her, because as a child, they thought the best way to avoid her destroying things was to limit interaction. If there was nothing and no one to make her upset, then there was no reason why she would be destructive. Obviously, this tactic didn't work, and poor parenting was just another reason why these false gods were just that, _false_.

Kym had thought her parents never loved her and had happily cast her out and then married her off so that they'd never have to worry about her again.

The revelation that this wasn't the case, as proven by the Styx, completely crushed the goddess' vengeful spirit, leaving the nearby Polybotes very awkward and aware that he had just completely lost his edge in this situation. He actually tried to swim away to the depths, where he would hopefully find Oceanus and strike a bargain with the Titan, but as he turned, his face rammed into something hard and unyielding.

"Where do you think you're going?" _Poseidon_ growled.

The giant chuckled nervously, and tried to bolt the other way, but the Queen of the Seas was there, and she was one unhappy mama. Trying to go the other way resulted in him getting nailed in the face by an unusually large conch shell, the impact being so hard that he went flipping end over end through the water before smacking headfirst into an ancient column, which collapsed on top of in a watery cloud of debris. Not letting Triton's attack go to waste, Persephone darted over fast as a cannonball, and slashed Riptide across Polybotes' throat.

With a gurgle, the giant turned to dust.

With a swipe of his arm, Poseidon dispelled that dust amongst the depths, and then he was embracing his divine daughter along with his wife, the little one sobbing her heart out.

Persephone floated off to the side, feeling out of place as Kym hugged and cried it out in their father's and Amphitrite's arms.

A hand gently rested on her shoulder, and Persephone to see her brother there, in his mermaid form, consisting of two magnificent tails with glittering blue scales, and an upper body made of solid muscle and green skin. His black hair was tied back in a wolf's tail, and his green eyes were beaming, full of pride and happiness.

Persephone flushed.

"It had to have come from you. Styx or not, Kymopoleia wouldn't have believed any of us."

"Are we bringing her back into the family?"

"She never _left _our family. We've tried to contact her for years, but we either couldn't find her, or it wasn't…a _good time_. Regardless, now that she's grown and has full control of herself and her domains, we don't have to worry about her having a meltdown and blasting apart half the city."

Persephone nodded, and got to business. "When I was in Tartarus, Erebus said that Percy's in danger."

"We know," Triton said grimly. "We've been trying to get a hold of Susano'o, and any Shinto god, but they're not responding. Father believes that Izanagi is doing the same thing Zeus is, blocking communication and contact, but we're not sure exactly why, but we're certain that Percy is the cause. For now, sister, you focus on your quest. Because we're gods, we cannot help anymore than what we already are, but we're doing _more_ than everything we can to get in touch with the Shinto gods. We _are _going to find out what's going on, and after you're done with Gaea, you're going to help with everything you've got, but right now, everything thing you've got will be going towards Gaea, do you understand?"

"I've got it. Gaea is the side show and needs to be handled, and Percy's the real problem we need to face."

Triton stared at his sister, flabbergasted at how she could so easily compartmentalize the literal earth goddess. "That's more or less incorrect, but I love your enthusiasm."

The other three sea gods came over, and Persephone shared a hug with her dad, her technical stepmother, and her technical stepsister.

"We're going to have to get together after this and have a sisters-day-out," Kym said.

"You got it."

"I'll have the biggest plate of my best cookies ready for you," Amphitrite promised.

Persephone's salivated at the thought of Amphitrite's cookies, second only to Sally's.

"I am very proud of the woman you've become," Poseidon said tenderly, hugging his daughter who hugged him back.

Persephone's eyes misted a little at her dad's words.

When she was about to leave, a sudden thought struck her. "Oh! Yeah, Annabeth threw an apple at my head the other day and I caught it and apparently that means we're-"

"You're engaged!" the four sea gods shouted at once, sending Persephone tumbling through the ocean, her eyeballs rattling in her skull.

As she became the epicenter of hugs, kisses, and excited congratulations, Persephone was left wondering how throwing an apple at someone counted as a marriage proposal.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**Right, after this unbelievably short chapter with very little dialogue, I'm calling it on account of there being decisions to make. Like how this story's going to end. **_

_**I have decided that there shall be two endings, the happy ending, and the real ending, so that we can have the best of both worlds. You guys get to see what things would've been like if I had a kind heart, and I get to put the ending I've been working up to for **__**five years**__** to the interwebs. Besides, don't act like this is the end of Shin'en's story; this is merely the end of the **__**Backup Plan**__** trilogy. It's not like I haven't been teasing this big, huge, awesome crossover for two years now…**_

_**Anyway, fun and happiness and the warm and fuzzies next chapter, before I rip your hearts out with the next chapter.**_

_**Fav, Follow, and Review please!**_


	10. The Happy Ending

_The Happy Ending_

_**We hit 200 Reviews with the last chapter, we're sitting at 122 Follows and Favs each as of the time of this introductory Author's Note.**_

_**So, here we are, the first of the last three chapters. This is the non-canon one, here to make those who want a happy ending feel good about themselves, and quite possibly make you cry. **_

_**Disclaimer: **_I don't Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Today was _the_ day. The day that Gaea was set to awake. The other demigods all had the mindset of trying to stop that from happening, but Persephone and Annabeth knew from experience that wasn't going to happen, and their real focus here in Athens should be to defeat the Giants, and then deal with Gaea after she inevitably woke.

After that came the uncomfortable question of _what next?_

After so many life and death situations and adventures on this quest, despite their differences and opinions, they had all bonded, even the power couples of Persephabeth and Jasper. When this quest was over, what were they going to do with themselves?

Persephone was vehement about doing more for the world, rooting out government corruption, bringing down big businesses that were unfair and polluting the environment, etc. The daughter of Poseidon was totally on board with being a real-life superhero, and Annabeth had no problems being right there with her fiancé…with her architectural degree, of course. The blonde did want to pursue her dream of designing beautiful and famous things, after all, something Persephone didn't fully understand as Annabeth had already redone the majority of the Olympian temples.

What kind of accomplishment was there in skyscrapers and houses compared to the abodes of gods?

It wasn't that Persephone had any kind of outstanding love or respect for the majority of her divine kin, but she could appreciate the gravity of making their houses, houses that had already earned Annabeth a whole lot of praise. In fact, if the sea princess recalled correctly, Apollo had been working on a song in her Wise Girl's honor, due to the great work she had done on Apollo's new temple.

What was any mortal accolade to having a song written about you by the music god himself?

Persephone wanted to take on a larger part for the planet, Annabeth was good on helping but she also wanted her degree, and the others, well…Leo had confessed that he had met Calypso on Ogygia, and so his grand plans for post-war activities included fixing the astrolabe and getting his girl, and after that…he had said something about opening up a machine repair shop.

Hazel and Frank more or less dodged the whole question by being the youngest members of the Seven, saying that they were just going to go back to the legion and finish their service, which would give them plenty of time to figure out their futures.

Piper and Jason were the most unsure about their togetherness. They never actually fell in love the same way Persephone, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, and Leo had. Their memories of being together were fabrications by Hera/Juno, and while ever since their quest to free the goddess seven months ago they had certainly come together, there was still that underlying feeling of _this isn't real_. For his part, Jason had decided to undertake a humongous project after a conversation with Favonius while Persephone and Annabeth were in Tartarus.

The project in question being to honor every god there was in the whole Greco-Roman pantheon.

Currently, the plan extended to a complete remodel of Temple Hill in New Rome, baseball cards, and action figures.

Such an undertaking was obviously going to require humungous amounts of time, energy, and resources, and Piper had no idea where her place was in all of that. Obviously, Jason had already extended the hopeful invitation for her help, and Piper had smiled and said sure, but after that? She didn't even know what she wanted to do with her life at all.

Movies like her dad? Fashion model? Therapist? Take up a permanent role in the tribe in Oklahoma?

During her time at Camp Half-Blood, she had many interactions with one Luke Castellan, a veteran of the Titan War like Jason, Persephone, Annabeth, and lots of others, and he told her that he had decided that he would spend his life as a teacher like Chiron, training generations of demigods for years to come until he passed on. Such an idea was appealing, but Piper had experience being a leader, being the councilor of her cabin, and that was a responsibility she wasn't sure she wanted for her whole life.

Other than just everyone dumping their problems on you, whatever problems happened elsewhere were somehow your fault and it was expected that you fix whatever your siblings broke. Being blamed for something she didn't do was one of Piper's biggest peeves. Not to mention the littlest of her charges, the _actual _kids, whatever mess they made, particularly the bodily kind, was hers to clean up.

Piper didn't particularly enjoy wiping her own butt after a trip to the bathroom, but there was something monstrously worse about having to wipe someone else's butt.

Let nothing be said about having to mop up someone else's vomit.

So, yeah, Persephone and Annabeth knew what they were going to do; Leo had a tentative plan, as did Hazel and Frank; Jason was going to busy himself with his project, and Piper was kind of out there in left field with her future.

Whatever the cases, Persephone felt just a bit stung by the way of the world.

You do all these things together, fighting side by side, killing monsters, Giants, defeating rogue gods, visiting some of the most exotic places in the world, having some of the deepest conversations ever had by teenagers, getting in and out of some the toughest situations imaginable, all the personal growth everyone was experiencing together…and then _poof_.

"Well, guys, that was fun. Great saving the world together—bye!"

And then you just never see each other again.

Life moved on, got in the way, and the people you considered your best friends simply weren't anymore. They became just distant memories of good times, better times, old times, the subject of nostalgia and reminiscing. Sure, you all might be able to get together over dinner or lunch, but would the feelings and the energy be the same? Probably not.

Persephone hated that. Did she want the Seven to be glued to the _Argo II_ forever? No. Did she want them all living in one big house together? No. The same apartment complex? No. What she did want was communication and contact, and regular get-togethers so that everyone was informed and still like the tightly bonded group they had become.

As Persephone laid in her bed, being Annabeth's proverbial little spoon, thinking of the future after Gaea, she thought back to an episode of _Teen Titans_. She forgot the name of the episode, but she remembered the time-traveling premise and how the Teen Titans of the future were, broken and scattered. _Rekmas_, Starfire had called it.

"The Drifting."

Persephone didn't want to drift away from the first friends she had ever made. She had already drifted from Grover, it felt like, having not really seen him much since he became Lord of the Wild, and all the people at Camp Half-Blood were more like acquaintances that she was friendly with. She never made any friends at school, being the weird, stupid outcast that was always annoying people, or beating them up because she had enough of their torment, torment that always happened behind closed doors and so always made her the bully to get kicked out. Annabeth had been a friend, but now she was so much more than that, so that left Leo, Hazel, Frank, Piper, and Jason as Persephone's actual friends.

At least in her mind.

Being her first real group of friends, Persephone didn't want them to go through the Rekmas.

Her reveries were completely and totally shattered when there was suddenly an unknown thing playing around in the back of her boyshorts.

"If you don't stop playing with my butthole," Persephone growled, turning her head around to glare at Annabeth, "I'm going to break your finger."

"What? Don't like it when I give a morning rimjob with my finger?"

"It's my _butthole_. I _poop_ and _fart_ from there. What you're doing is _gross_."

"True on all accounts," Annabeth said, still rolling her finger over the soft, crinkled, slightly slick skin of her girlfriend's anus. "However, if you maintain a proper hygiene, such as wiping away all the poop, changing and washing your underwear, and bathing properly, your butthole should be just as clean as anywhere else on your body. Besides, you never said you didn't like it."

Persephone flushed lightly, because she actually kind of did like having her exit played with, but that wasn't the point.

"Ah! I see you blushing!" Annabeth crowed, making Persephone blush harder.

"You're not hugging me or touching anything on this boat before I see you washing your hands with soap and water for three minutes straight," the sea princess muttered, looking away.

Now, was Annabeth just being frisky by playing with Persephone's asshole? Partly. She was an ass-man (girl?) after all, and during the Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters quests, when she had still been a boy entering puberty, she had been sneaking every look she could at Persephone's ass, and that had only increased after her transformation. So yeah, playing with Persephone's asshole was indeed a fulfilment of one of Annabeth's many sexual desires, and this little bit right here would hopefully become an avenue to a broader range of anal play.

However, the real purpose behind Annabeth's ministrations was because she knew her girlfriend. She could tell by Persephone's body language, factoring what today was and all that had happened in the preceding months, that she was thinking about what was going to happen next and what become of the friendship they had all built together, and that all of that was stressing her out. What better way to take someone's mind off of things than to start teasing their rosebud?

Especially when they were an anal virgin.

"Soap and water for three minutes?" Annabeth grinned. "That implies you've got a dirty butt and don't clean yourself properly. Huuuuh? Do I need to start watching over you as you go potty and make sure that Widdle 'Sephone is using the potty paper correctly?"

In a flurry of motion that Annabeth's demigod hyper-cognition couldn't quite follow against all logic, the blonde found her legs held firmly between Persephone's own legs, her shorts pulled down, and her upper body bent over the stronger girl's knee, held in place by very firm arm.

"H-Hey now—what are you-_OW!_"

Persephone's hand came down hard on Annabeth's round, supple butt cheek, instantly turning the tan skin red, a mark in the shape of a hand already appearing.

It would be but the first of many spanks than Annabeth received that morning, as Persephone let the blonde know just how unamused, unimpressed, and how just how much she unappreciated being talked down to and demeaned like an undependable toddler.

Funnily enough, the daughter of Poseidon actually had only one idea of how to spank someone, given that she had only ever received _one_ spanking in her whole life, after she stole a 97-cent candy bar from as gas station. Sally easily found about it due to seven-year-old Persephone's lack of subtlety, and turned the whole thing into a math exercise.

9+7=16.

16/2=8

2 butt cheeks, 8 spanks each, equaled sixteen.

Persephone got eight relatively light swats on each hemisphere of her bottom, but the experience was enough to steer her away from theft for the past decade, and she had no intention of stealing ever in her life. With that kind of limited spanking experience, Persephone's hand was coming down harder than what her mother's had, partly because she knew Annabeth could take it, and mostly because she couldn't measure her own strength. She was also bringing her hand down in the exact same location every time, thanks to her hyper-cognitive brain being able to see the trajectory.

Each hit was eliciting a squawk and a flinch from Annabeth, and try as she might to wriggle free, Persephone's hold on her was like steel. Finally, after an even twelve spanks per cheek, twelve as in the number of Olympian gods, the daughter of Poseidon rounded off her punishment by grabbing hold of Annabeth's thong and yanking it up towards her head.

The goal was actually for an atomic wedgie, but the material of the underwear wasn't stretchy enough, and so it was torn clean in half in one stroke.

Persephone blinked at the half of a thong in her hand, and then shrugged and tossed it on the bed behind her. She let Annabeth collapse to the floor, the blonde groaning and already massaging her blistered butt, perfect imprints of Persephone's hands on each cheek.

"I'm going to breakfast," Persephone declared, putting on some bottoms to go over her boyshorts. Her typical pajama attire consisted of just her underwear and a baggy t-shirt, an ensemble that went all the way back to her potty-training days. "You will sit here and think about what you've done, and when you get yourself together, you'd better have washed your hands. I will be checking before you eat, to make sure you aren't touching food with a hand covered in butt-germs."

Persephone left, and Annabeth was left there on the floor with her massively stinging rear, thinking it was funny how her girlfriend kept implying that she didn't wipe her rear enough to where it wasn't a clean area, and how that, even after discussing exploring an ageplay kink with the verdict being no, as Persephone was uncomfortable being a mommydom and was even more uncomfortable calling Annabeth mommy, feeling it to be a betrayal of her actual mother, that Persephone could pull off being a mommydom so well.

Despite how much her ass was hurting right now, Annabeth was so hot and bothered that her hand slipped down to what was left of her thong and started to rub.

Her other hand came up to her nose, and she inhaled the interesting scent combination of butthole and Dove soap.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

True to her promise, when Annabeth got to breakfast, Persephone grabbed her hand and sniffed. Satisfied with the smell of soap, she permitted her girlfriend to partake in the eating of blueberry and chocolate chip muffins. The rest of the Seven were confused over the interaction, and became even more so when Annabeth gingerly sat down in her chair and winced when her butt made contact. Eyes drifted to Persephone, who continued to innocently butter her muffins, seemingly oblivious to it all.

"Okay~," Jason drew out. "Right then. The gameplan. Anyone got any outstanding ideas?"

Persephone placed her Karas armor watch-thingy on the table, making the eyes of Frank and Hazel go wide because they recognized that big pocket watch with the crow-like design around it. Annabeth raised her brow.

"Where were you keeping that?"

"Don't worry about it."

"What _is_ that?" Piper asked.

"_This_ would be only the _second_ birthday present my cranky little brother has ever given me, the first being my awesome Akatsuki cloak."

"What does it do?" Leo asked, eyeballing the contraption.

"It turns her into a Power Ranger," Frank supplied.

"Pink or Yellow?"

"Um…Black, I think."

Persephone rolled her eyes. "It's called the Uzumaki Power Armor, or the Karas armor. It's a battle armor created by these wizards, I guess you could call them that, for members of their clan that weren't good in certain areas of fighting. This armor helps with that, granting increased strength, speed, reflexes, and durability, while also letting you transform into this really cool jet fighter and sportscar that can fire lasers and missiles. The important part is that, while I'm wearing it, I can kill the Giants without a god's help."

Leo, Piper, and Jason's eyes widened at that, with Frank and Hazel not being surprised, having witnessed it firsthand, and Annabeth had already been told.

"You're only just now mentioning this?" Jason said, just a little bit frustrated. "What about when we were fighting Otis and Ephialtes and had to play gladiator for Bacchus and a bunch of ghosts?"

Persephone swallowed the remains of her muffin and looked her cousin square in the eye. "I left it on the ship because I forgot about it."

Jason looked like he wanted to come across the table and strangle her, but he refrained. He took a deep breath. "Okay—it's okay, we know about it now and it's a great big help considering we've got to fight _all_ of the Giants. What I'm thinking is that me, Frank, and Piper will go in first, hit them with a bit of shock and awe, and then Persephone—jet fighter?"

"Jet fighter."

"You'll come swooping in from above six minutes after me and the others go, and strafe everything you can, aiming for the giants, and then hit it with the ground battle. Fifteen seconds after that, Leo, Annabeth, and Hazel, you guys will bring in the _Argo II_ and hopefully just be mop-up duty instead of desperately needed reinforcements. Any questions, comments, or concerns?"

Persephone raised her hand. "What's your backup plan?"

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As it turned out, Jason did not have a backup plan, and it proved to be disastrous. The Giants had been ready and waiting, a species of monsters called the Gemini having informed them of the arrival of the half-bloods. The Gemini, having the upper bodies of humans and the lower bodies of snakes, making them the serpentine equivalent of a centaur, proved to be excellent spies, going completely unnoticed by the demigods.

As such, Jason, Frank, and Piper, trying to go under the radar with illusion magic and position themselves in places so they could cause the most damage, were easily made and captured, and after a tense wait for Persephone, she was captured too, the Giants having found a way, thanks to their mother, to knock the armored daughter of Poseidon not only clean from the sky, but clean out of her armor. Luckily, she remained clothed in all other senses, so no one got a show. Likewise, the _Argo II_, while succeeding in blowing some stuff up, was ultimately useless against the prepared mythological army, and ended up crashed, the demigods inside apprehended.

The situation the half-bloods found themselves in were that they were all being held in the large grasp of a Giant, the threat of being squished literally all around them, with Annabeth being held at swordpoint while Porphyrion stood over her, a cup of foul-smelling liquid in his hand.

"This," the Giant King declared, "will remove the effects of Circe's potion, turning this confused trash back into his proper form, thus giving us the male blood that we need to wake the Earth Mother!"

The gathered army of monsters cheered and screamed. The bloody nose Persephone had provided the necessary female blood.

"It won't work," Annabeth said calmly, trying to use socio-politics to her advantage.

"What won't? The potion or the ritual?"

"The ritual. You said you need the blood of a male and female, and that potion will turn me back into a male, but the specifics of the magic won't. Just because I'll be biologically male, doesn't mean I'll identify as male. I'll still be female in my heart, mind, and soul, and therefore your ritual won't work."

"Ah~, but you see, child," Porphyrion sneered, his pure white eyes gleaming, "this is an ancient ritual, conceived during a time when the Titans were but babes. Because of this, the specifics of the spell go far beyond this world's idiotic views of gender. Regardless, do you really think something as powerful as _this _magic would be subject to your pathetic socio-politics? Your final moments are indeed amusing."

Not having thought of any good plan herself, and everyone else clearly not having thought of any good plans, Annabeth prepared herself for what was bound to be the uncomfortable feeling of having a set of testicles split apart by the strap of her thong.

Porphyrion raised the cup for dramatic effect, and just before he poured, something fell into it from above with a hiss.

Blinking, the Giant king brought the cup to his face and peered in. "A cigarette butt?"

As one, the whole congregation turned their attention upward, and the wind was suddenly ripped free from the acropolis.

"Hey," Shin'en casually greeted from his perch on the crane arm.

"You butthole!" Persephone yelled. "You've been sitting there the whole time, haven't you!?"

"No. I actually only just arrived."

"Well—quit sitting there and get to fighting already!"

"Everyone, I apologize on behalf of my sister. She gets real cranky when she doesn't get her nap."

"_Butthole~_."

"However, she might just need a diaper change. She is incontinent, after all."

The Giant that was holding Persephone dropped her with a squawk, and Riptide was out faster than the blink of an eye. About a dozen bronze flashes of light crisscrossed over the Giant's legs before Persephone hit the ground, and the big monsters went stumbling back, howling in pain at all the cuts on his legs, _ichor_ gushing out.

"I do _not_ need a diaper change!" Persephone shrieked, pointing her sword tip at her brother. "I am _not_ a continent!"

Annabeth palmed her face, and Shin'en was smiling behind the collar of his cloak.

"Of course not."

He slid off the crane and was enveloped in an ethereal emerald green fire. Shin'en never actually touched the ground, but his Full-Body Susano'o impacted with a mighty crash, shaking the whole of Athens. Standing at a hundred feet, the Susano'o was easily the biggest, baddest player on the battlefield. Wearing a chestplate that was cut to mimic pectorals and a perfect set of eight-pack abs, the shoulder armor of the Roman lorica segmentata, the segmented plate armor of the samurai around the thighs, the legs were protected by a set of greaves, and the arms by a set of bracers…all of it purely decorational, of course.

The helmet was the scariest, with his bull horns on the temples, the inverted rhino horn on the forehead, the fiery plume on top, and the glowing eyes in the darkness of the t-shaped opening.

The air of Athens chilled, dropping thirty degrees in seconds. Distantly, everyone heard a faint howling, like tortured souls, coming from the Susano'o, and they were afraid. All but Persephone.

Porphyrion was so terrified that he dropped the cup he was holding. Annabeth squeaked as the liquid came down at her, and she braced for the discomfort of her body changing genders and her clothes no longer fitting correctly, but it never came. Cracking an eye open, she looked up and saw the liquid was stopped in midair, Persephone's hand outstretched towards it.

With a motion, the liquid was tossed aside, and Shin'en attacked.

Due to Inner-Pantheonic Law, his foothold in the Shinto pantheon allowed him to slay Giants without godly help, the Greco-Roman magic not applying to him. Even if it did, his technique, Susano'o, when utilized, called upon an actual bit of _the_ Susano'o's power. Shin'en was essentially fighting alongside his patron god, his foster father in a sense, whenever he invoked the ethereal warrior's power.

The son of Poseidon laid waste to Gaea's children, crushing them under heel, smashing them with fists, and slicing them with his weapon, the gladius called Ame-no-Ohabari, the sword used by Izanagi to kill Kagutsuchi, his own son, after his birth burned Izanagi. Those that mustered enough courage to attack, or panicked enough to attack, met the shield that was Aegis, Shin'en's defense.

For the ones that tried to flee, the Susano'o's eyes glowed brightly and unleashed fire and light, completely atomizing whatever was caught in the vast gaze.

In less than three minutes, (one of) the direst threat the mythological world ever faced was handled. And then the gods showed up in all their glory, armed, armored, and ready for battle. Truthfully, it was an epic showing, with all the gleaming regalia, the fierce expressions, the atmosphere charged with power, the chariots and the battle animals, but the awesome effects was ruined by the fact that the battle was already over and their contribution, which would've no doubt been effective, was null and void.

Instead of finding their children in dire straits, they instead their children more or less having a picnic, with Poseidon's estranged son among the group, accompanied by a young blonde woman.

Zeus cleared his throat. "What is going on here?" he demanded, using his Big Voice.

Shin'en looked over at him, slightly annoyed. "We're in the middle of discussing our weddings. If you're not here to help with that, then please leave."

"Whose weddings?"

"Mine and Naruko's, and Persephone and Annabeth's…along with a four-fold baby shower."

The gods gaped at Shin'en.

"C-Come ag-ag-again?" Poseidon said weakly.

The Ghost of the Bloody Mist rolled his eyes and took a breath for this one.

"Everyone, this is my fiancé, Naruko Namikaze. You might remember her from four years ago as one of the two that just barely managed to fight me to almost a standstill. After some time together, we decided to get married, and she is pregnant with our children, a boy and a girl twin. Likewise, Annabeth and Persephone have decided to get married, and they're both extremely irresponsible teenagers, having unprotected sex, resulting in the both of them being pregnant with the other's child. So, two weddings, and a four-fold baby shower."

It was silent for a bit, before godly shouting began, and drachmas were discretely exchanged behind backs.

"I still can't believe we actually got each other pregnant," Annabeth muttered, placing a hand over her womb, where a child was supposedly developing. She doubted Percy would lie about something like that, but still: it just seemed so far out there and impossible, even if they were demigoddesses.

"I know. Isn't it _awesome_?" Persephone gushed. She was completely over the moon with the prospect of being a mom.

Annabeth, however, was nervous, and that was because she didn't necessarily have a mom. She effectively didn't know what to do since she had never been taught, unlike Persephone, who had been glued to her mother's hip. When nudged, the blonde looked into the beaming face of the other blonde.

"You're going to do fine," Naruko assured warmly.

She exuded so much confidence and certainty in that statement that Annabeth actually felt better.

The other Seven were still stunned through their shoes and beyond that they were finally face to face with the infamous and enigmatic Shin'en Yūrei, aka Percy Jackson, Persephone's little brother that was spoken of only in hushed whispers, like some kind of boogie man. On top of that, he brought with him an anime character for a fiancé, and had casually told everyone about Persephone and Annabeth's respective pregnancies. And then, still trying to process that information, in addition to how easy Shin'en had destroyed the Giants, the gods, their parents, had descended from on high ready to do battle alongside them, only there was no battle.

Yeah, Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, and Frank were a bit out of it right now, leaving only Persephone, Annabeth, Naruko, and Shin'en as lucid.

As for Shin'en, his ears were starting to hurt. "Hey!"

The gods all shut up and looked at him.

"You can all bitch about what you can't do at a later time."

Zeus jumped at the chance to finally open his mouth and take charge of the situation. "Yes-yes, quite right. _Ahem_, now that the situation here is under control, what of Gaea?"

"She went back to sleep," Shin'en answered. "She'll try retaking herself when I'm not here."

"Uh, right….Now, this whole situation in its entirety, our Greek and Roman children at each other's throats, the rising of the Giants, and the awakening of Gaea in the first place. There must be judgement upon those who are to blame."

"An excellent idea," Shin'en agreed. "I hereby nominate Zeus to take the blame."

A lightning bolt suddenly escaped the king of the gods, destroying an under-renovation temple. Zeus looked managed to look both horrified and angry at the same time.

"_What_?"

Shin'en lit a cigarette. "It was you that decided to call all the gods to Olympus, and then shut the mountain off, hoping that no gods on Earth would somehow make the problem go away. Obviously, it did not, and what progress that was made in my two-year absence in regards to marriage, crime, government, pollution, and world stability in general, was rapidly undone and now we're looking at percentages that are just slightly worse than what they were, but are still _worse_.

"There is also the matter of the other gods considered 'minor.' None of you have made your peace except for Poseidon with Kymopoleia."

At the mention of the storm goddess, Zeus blinked. "Who?"

"Your niece," Shin'en supplied.

"Ah. _That_ Kymopoleia."

"Yes, _that_ Kymopoleia. Anyway, the other gods are still quite estranged and looked down upon, despite Annabeth's best efforts to design and build cabins and temples for them at Camp Half-Blood and Olympus. Never mind all of your abused and forgotten children, who I expressly commanded all of you to identify so that they may receive safe passage to Camp Half-Blood—and I sincerely hope you didn't take that as _just_ CHB, and left your Roman offspring out to dry. There's also the children that have been identified and are currently engaged in the mythosphere. None of you have been spending time with them, have you?"

The gods shifted.

"You, O Zeus, the Master of This House, have not been leading by example, or leading at all. You should have been the one spearheading this endeavor, if only for the sake of your uncountable grandchildren." Shin'en smiled.

"But everything is alright now. I am here…_to stay_. I bring with me all of my power, and I readily accept all of the corresponding responsibility. Now, let's get to work."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the course of a single night, the world as it was known ended.

There was no chakra in this world, but there was this divine magic called the Mist that went really well with the ocular power of the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan.

The three CEOs of Triumvirate Holdings were visited in a night, and all of their wealth and influence were directed to other departments, such as the desalination industry, for one example. Suddenly, it was no longer an expensive operation to turn salt water into fresh water, and the world's water crisis was over. In fact, there were a lot of crises that suddenly ended when so many billions were directed to the right projects instead of the wrong pockets.

The American governments were reformed, the local, state, and federal, with so many of its members confessing to crimes of embezzlement, bribery, child pornography, and more. Most interestingly, instead of spending so many days and years in prisons, they were publicly executed by the National Guard within hours, and whatever family was left had the option of being shot themselves, or they could carry on. Even more interestingly, there were thousands of people that were more than happy to step right up and take up the mantle of official, people that weren't Democrat or Republican, Liberal or Conservative.

These were strange people that went into office, ones with no agendas or vendettas or allegiances. Instead, their focus was on the law, the Constitution, and ensuring the life, liberty, and property of all peoples.

To such ends, there was a lot of blood spilt over the period of a month, particularly in Detroit, Chicago, and the cities along the Southern borders of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. In short, the various gangs and cartels were put out of business.

There was education reform, with Bush's No Child Left Behind Act being repealed. The input and reports of teachers across the nation were actually documented and reviewed, and this feedback was used to institute new strategies for American education, with the primary idea being that teachers were given the freedom they needed to construct adaptable courses for students that possessed the drive to learn, but needed help to do so.

There was welfare reform, with so many, many families and people getting booted from the program with their only warning being a letter and an email. There were complaints and lawsuits filed left and right, but such things were suddenly made very quiet when detailed spending reports from the banks came in. With welfare also came employment reform, with a whole lot of companies finding themselves on the receiving end of heavy taxes when they failed to produce official and correct Social Security information on so many employees, who were promptly fired.

And a decent portion were deported.

Along with the many politicians who found themselves confessing to their crimes, so did the CEOs of big businesses, and many other billionaires. In the wake of all this confessing, that left a whole lot of money without owners, and all these new people in government were more than happy to redistribute that massive amount of wealth among the hospitals and the charities and the foreign relief programs.

Similar things happened across the globe, with India and China finding their factories, particularly the ones dumping waste products into the rivers, destroyed. Production of so much stuff, like clothes, shoes, and everyday things, found their way to America, creating millions of jobs. It required effort, a thing Americans didn't seem to want to give nowadays, but money was money, and people wanted money, and so they got jobs and did almost nothing but bitch about it.

That wasn't any of Shin'en's concern.

His job was more or less finished, with literally everyone in America being well above the poverty line, the rest of the world population on its way—those that cared about money, anyway. Not everyone had a thing for money and found themselves to be just fine the way they were—and the governments were filled with people that "cared." Pollution was being knocked out thanks to those in government passing and enforcing the EPA laws, and there was now enough money to go around to make clean energy and biodegradable products a cost-effective process. Crime was at an all-time low across the globe, because there was no reason to resort to crime, and those that committed crimes for no other reason than because they could found themselves getting the help they needed.

Sometimes by way of a belt.

Sometime by way of a hungry swarm of rats.

It really depended on the severity of the crime. Trying to make off with some lady's purse? Belt. Trafficking children into sexual slavery? Rats.

Shin'en had Epstein's screams recorded on tape, along with all of the man's friends.

Anyway, that was what happened on the global scale; nothing out of the ordinary for your typical happy ending, just world peace, medicine, deliverance from poverty and starvation, cooperative and idealistic governments, justice, etc.

On the personal scale, upon Persephone's insistence, Shin'en and Naruko attended senior year with her and Annabeth. There was no reason for it other than to make Seph happy, because there was no reason for Shin'en and Naruko to graduate high school and get jobs and build a career for themselves. In all the ryō they had between themselves, they had almost three billion in USD, more than enough for Paul and Sally to get their dream house, launch Sally's writing career, and make Paul the happiest teacher to ever live, and get Annabeth into and through whatever college she wanted, and start up her own architectural firm, not to mention take care of Annabeth's own family.

Magnus still died and became an einherjar, but Shin'en completely and totally abstained from anything and everything even remotely related to the Nordic pantheon, purely so that he didn't have to deal with Alex Fierro. Besides that, if his sister and Loki's biological daughter were to ever meet, Alex would confuse Persephone so bad and then dog on her for not understanding what it meant to be transgender and gender fluid, that Persephone would pop the Norse demigod's head clean from her shoulders.

That would create problems with Ragnarök, and Shin'en was tired of expending his energies on other people's problems.

Which was why he left the Egyptian stuff to the Kanes.

During the course of their senior year, the pregnancies of Naruko, Annabeth, and Persephone obviously developed, and the problem of the impending children laid more with Naruko and Shin'en than with Annabeth and Persephone. The latter two's kids were biological twins, having the same demigoddess mothers, and Persephone was so ready and confident that she was practically glowing.

It wasn't that "Shiruko," as the Stoll cousins had coined them was scared about having kids, they were just worried about what their kids were going to become.

Right off the bat, the twins were going to be legacies of Poseidon, granting them physical prowess beyond human, and supernatural powers. Based on the texts the two had read, they could expect weaker powers compared to Shin'en, but powers all the same. On top of being godly legacies, they were also going to be Uzumaki legacies, and would no doubt enjoy the Uzumaki physical prowess of abnormal stamina, recovery, healing, and longevity. So, super bodies for the babies.

Then there was who their parents were.

Naruko was Kage-level all by herself, even more so than other Kage-level ninja, _and_ she was the Jinchuuriki of the _complete_ Nine-Tails, the Yin half having remerged with the Yang upon Minato's death. All of that chakra made her body and mind _strong_. Likewise, Shin'en's body and mind were _stronger_, the man having been through far more than Naruko had, and she did not harbor any envy of it. More than that, Shin'en was blessed by Susano'o-no-Mikoto, his chakra having been given to him by the god himself.

Shiruko's kids were going to be legacies of Poseidon, descendants of the Uzumaki, and their chakra coils were going to be running with chakra coming from their mighty Jinchuuriki mother, and their even mightier demigod father. The little turds were going to be a couple of ankle biting WMDs.

Now, just when all that strength was going to kick in was unknown, but it couldn't be left up to chance. They couldn't put their kids into a world of daycare and kindergarten; a simple tantrum could easily turn into a bloodbath, and it wasn't like Shiruko were _not_ going to train their kids. Perhaps not to be killers like they were, but they were certainly going to teach control and discipline to avoid a preschool slaughterhouse.

The big problem was just how they were going to raise their kids.

The way kids were raised to today—ideally speaking, of course—were to obey the laws, particularly the ones about stealing and killing. Kids were taught to listen to Mommy, Daddy, and adults in general. They were taught to play nice with the other kids, don't be bullies, share, and be helpful. This was all well and good, but everyone with half a functioning brain knows that doesn't go over well whenever stimulus was introduced.

Things happened and questions were asked, and things were done in the name of getting answers.

In the process of _learning_, kids discovered the pecking order, that the bigger you were, the stronger you appeared to be. With them being so small, and adults being so big, they realized how low they were, and the primal instincts kicked in. They couldn't wait to be big, their limited understanding bringing them to the conclusion that when they were big, they could do what they wanted with no one to tell them differently.

Shiruko's children were going to learn real fast that size didn't matter. When you could pick someone up and throw them through the wall, even the adults, you realized real fast what power was all about.

_Power_ was about taking the established order of things, shitting all over them, and then leaving the toilet paper on their face. Breaking the laws, and not just getting away with it, but being able to do it with no one able to stop you by any means. A couple of twins with superhuman bodies and supernatural powers? Yeah, they could easily shit on this world's laws.

Only Mommy and Daddy would be able to put a stop to that, but depending on how their kids turned out despite their efforts, that could cause so much emotional and psychological damage that they could very well end up of having to put their children down for good in order to save the world. Shin'en knew this from experience.

One of his Yūrei missions involved killing a boy that had once been as sweet as a cherub, but had turned into a demon after he unwittingly unlocked his chakra and began acting how he pleased due to his newfound powers. In the rural little village, no one could stop him, and no shinobi of Yagura's or Mei's would care to help, thanks to the war. The village just tried to appease the boy at first, but after he killed his own mother after an incident, they realized it was too late, and for all of their sakes, they pooled enough money and contracted Yūrei for the job of killing the boy.

They did so, and the funeral was one of the saddest, most tragic things Shin'en had ever witnessed, and it drove him to lock himself in his room for ten hours, only letting in Sukina so he could cry in her arms for another thirty minutes.

That was Shin'en's biggest fear for his children: despite all of the love they were showered with, things would happen that would transform them from innocent angels, into tyrannical demons, believing that their great power made them rulers, exempt from judgement and restraint, and entitled them to do as they pleased since no one could stop them. While not entirely wrong, all things considered, it was still just _wrong_.

And it would be the duty of Shin'en, as the father, to make sure that wrong was ended.

However, this was the _happy ending_, and that didn't happen at all. Instead, Annabeth and Persephone, wedded after one of the grandest ceremonies Olympus had ever seen in the most beautiful of gowns, went into the most painless, seamless labor ever underwent by women. With so many gods and goddesses there for the birth, including Artemis herself, there was hardly any pain as the newly weds gave birth, and the babies were the healthiest and best cared for ever.

Annabeth Jackson, taking her wife's name, gave birth to a girl with a right green eye, and a left grey eye, and black hair. She was named Natalie, after Annabeth's paternal aunt.

Persephone gave birth to a boy with a left green eye, and a right grey eye, and blonde hair. His name was harder to determine because Persephone wasn't going to call her newborn baby "Jim" or "Rich," and calling him "Percy" was just weird because that was her brother's name, and "Tristan," after Triton, also didn't sit well, partly because of the reasoning behind Percy, and also because, all things considered, Triton hadn't done enough in his time as a brother to warrant the honor of his name being used for Persephone's child.

Ironically, it was Shin'en that named his nephew, dubbing the boy to be Arashi Jim-Rich Jackson.

Being born twelve minutes after his sister Natalie made him the little brother, a fact that did not escape the notice of the children's family.

The wedding between Shin'en and Naruko was just as grand, but far sadder, as no one from Naruko's family was there to witness her marriage, for they were all dead by her groom's hand, morbidly enough. Still, even if they had attended, they would've had to be under heavy layers of genjutsu so that they wouldn't try to kill Shin'en out of hatred and vengeance, and Naruko wouldn't have wanted that.

She wanted her family and friends to be there, happy for her and enjoying themselves.

Shin'en could've used the Reanimation to bring them back, and then used the controlling function of the jutsu to make them smile and clap and be happy, but it obviously would've been fake and forced, all of them robbed of their freedom and free will. It would've been likewise with the Izanagi.

So, the wedding was bittersweet for Naruko Yūrei and her husband.

Giving birth wasn't.

Naruko didn't want godly help to deliver her children. All she wanted was Shin'en and a pool. It didn't particularly hurt, since the water, under Shin'en's power, eased the pain, and he also knew what he was doing, using his fingers to help spread her open wide enough to first push their daughter, and then their son. The babies didn't cry or wail, but they were in perfect health.

The girl was a beautiful child, a trio of whisker marks on each cheek. She had her father's eyes and hair color, but her mother's hair type and face. She was named Mito-nade Kushina Yūrei, in honor of her technical great-great-grandmother, her biological great-grandmother, and her grandmother. Mito-nade's little brother was her exact image, and he was simply named Asby Jackson.

Arashi.

Sukina.

Bullock.

Yūwaku.

After a little bit, the middle name of "Minataiya" was added, being the combination of Minato and Jiraiya, the boy's grandfather and great-grandfather.

Mito-nade Kushina Yūrei, and her little brother, Asby Minataiya Yūrei, children of Naruko Yūrei and Shin'en Yūrei, niece and nephew to Persephone and Annabeth Jackson, cousins to Natalie and Arashi Jim-Rich Jackson.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_In another place_

_In another time_

In a farmhouse in the country, mountains rising in the distance, lived an odd family. The parents were biologically mother and father, though the father seemed to all that met him a female. He had the curved and lithe physique of a female, the butt and chest of one, the face, the hair, and the voice. But the penis between the legs proved otherwise.

The anatomy wasn't the scariest part, however. No, what truly made the man unique was his ability to read minds, a power that was passed onto his and his wife's son, little Percy Jackson.

While his parents were tending to the garden, Little Percy was up in the game room, a plastic guitar in his seven-year-old hands as he played _Guitar Hero_ on Beginner, his young body not big enough to reach all the buttons. As he was jamming out, he noticed a rising cloud of dust out the window and figured that someone was coming to the house.

Excited at the prospect of visitors, Percy paused his game and went tearing down the stairs and out the door, where his Momma and Dad were standing in the dirt driveway, shoulder to shoulder. They seemed tense, and Percy squeezed his head between them.

Using his power, he quickly realized why they seemed tense: he couldn't read the minds of the approaching people. He could feel the minds, but he couldn't read them at all. That had _never _happened before, and now he was really curious.

Two cars casually pulled up the driveway, and when the driver door of the first one opened, and the driver stepped out, the collective breath of the family of three was sucked out of their lungs.

"Hey," Shin'en greeted.

Asteria and Annabeth went running into his arms.

An hour later, and Shin'en, Naruko, Persephone, Annabeth, Asteria, Annabeth, Percy, and five-year-olds Natalie, Arashi, Mito, and Asby were all sitting around a big table enjoying a big lunch as they traded stories.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Decades passed and the heroes moved on from the world one by one due to the ease of time. There was no pain that anyone experienced. They merely went to bed after living to a great age, all of them seeing their great-grandchildren, and they greeted Thanatos like old friends early in the night.

Persephone and Annabeth were taken to Elysium hand in hand, their spiritual bodies returned to the days of their quest against Gaea, and it was there that they were reunited with Sally, Paul, Frederick, and all of the others.

Even Naruko and Shin'en were not immortal, and time slowly eased them into bed one last time. With how special they were, with how special they all were, their bond broke the barriers of the afterlife, and those that resided in the Duat, Hotel Valhalla, Elysium, could all speak and after-live with one another just like old times.

However, even more benevolently, Naruko and Shin'en's souls could travel to the Pure Land, where Minato, Kushina, Menma and everyone else resided, free of their earthly hatred. They all welcomed Naruko with open arms.

And for Shin'en?

After an early start of pain and suffering, and then a gift of a wife, children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren, he was rewarded with one more gift.

Here, in the Pure Land, welcoming him with open arms and proud smiles was the matron, all of the orphans, Yugito, Bee, Darui, Ay, Cee, and of course…

Yūrei.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**And that is how the story ends on a happy note.**_

_**Shin'en uses his powers to more or less forcefully steer the world down the path we all think is ideal for peace.**_

_**He marries Naruko and raises their children together.**_

_**Persephone marries Annabeth, and they knocked each other up with the magic strap-on, and they raised their own kids too.**_

_**Everyone lived a long, peaceful, amazing life of love and happiness right up until they passed away in their sleep, where they were reunited with everyone that they loved in the afterlife.**_

_**Since this is non-canon, that means that none of this actually happens.**_

…

_**Or, maybe, this is Naruko's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream.**_

_**Whatever the case, the next two chapters are the real chapters, and they will be sad.**_


	11. and the Omega

…_and the Omega_

_**You guys didn't think my heart was in it last chapter? **_

_**Well, you're right. I got to watching StealthGamerBR's gameplay of **__**Dishonored**__**, and thought what the heck? I'll see what I can do. **_

_**Long story short, I have room for improvement regarding my creative killing skills.**_

_**As for this chapter, it takes place immediately after Chapter One, the title of which is "The Alpha…," this one being "…and the Omega." I can't promise complete and total gut-wrenching sadness, as such an effect is dependent on you and your personal constitution, but I will promise that you're getting the scene I've been envisioning for several years now.**_

_**Background music I've been playing with back and forth for the coming titular scene is "So Long Sentiment" by Celldweller, and "Anakin's Dark Deeds" by John Williams. I'm not giving you an in-story que as to when to start playing, because I'm pretty sure you'll be able to figure out when to play it.**_

_**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Naruto or PJO

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_When Shin'en's eyes snapped open, his brain was awash in a tidal wave of information._

_Firstly was the clothes on his body: it was not his usual outfit. Gone was his Akatsuki cloak, his pants, the pouches at his waist, the sandals and the legwarmers. In their place was what Shin'en decided was a set of shoulder pads, hip pads, thigh pads, knee pads, cleats, a cup against his crotch, a pad at his tailbone, and the pressure around his head coupled with the bars limiting his vision could only mean a helmet._

_Sweet Jesus, he was wearing American football gear, and judging by everything he was seeing, he was on the field, and it was game night._

_Two Planck seconds later, his hearing kicked in about the same time his hydro-sensing kicked in—and his nose as he took a breath, making him note with extreme confusion as to why the ai quality of New York was as clean and untainted as the Shinobi World—and he was thrown for a loop so wide at what he was registering, that he would've thought himself dreaming had he not literally been able to sense the water in the air, and the water in the people in the stands._

"_Woo-hoo~! Go Percy~!"_

_Even amidst all the cheering already going on from the five thousand-plus crowd, Persephone still made her voice heard…from the sideline…where the cheerleaders were. Shin'en locked into investigating that area first, and he nearly fainted._

_The cheer squad was totally consistent of demigoddesses, which meant that whatever high school this was—Goode, if Shin'en was correct—was seeing a cheer dream team that it would never see again. There was Persephone, Annabeth, Piper, Hazel, Reyna, __**Clarisse**__, Rachel Elizabeth Dare, Katie and Miranda Gardner, Samirah al Abbas, Sadie Kane, and Zia Rashid. _

_And yes, it was Goode High School, as indicated by their uniforms._

_That combination didn't make a lick of sense to Shin'en, as confused as he already was, he was certain that during this time, in which they were all of high school age, all of those people should've been scattered across the continent. It got a whole lot worse when Shin'en directed his attention to the football team, and noted all the demigods present._

_Currently on the field with him, and based on the arrangement, they were ready to perform the kick return, was Jason directly to his right, meaning that the son of Jupiter was KR2, and he, Shin'en, was KR1, and in front of them as the second line was Walt Stone, Carter Kane, Dakota, son of Bacchus, and Amir Fadlan, Samirah's betrothed. In the front line was Frank, Michael Kahale, Will Solace, Chris Rodriguez, and Travis Stoll._

_Whoever the ball was about to be kicked to had a guaranteed touchdown, as none of the boys out here were mortals. No, Shin'en could tell by the magical energy coming off of them, and by how their DNA was literally incomplete—due to how acute his hydro-sensing really was—that they were all demigods. _

_Turning his attention to the sideline, Shin'en noted other demigods, and looking up in the stands, where the band was, he noted even more demigods, though those two areas were more heavily populated with mortal students. Also in the stands were the twelve Olympian gods, Hades, Hestia, and a whole host of other gods, most notably the goddess Persephone, Triton, and Amphitrite. The scariest part was that all of camps Half-Blood and Jupiter were there, and all of the demigods were sitting around their respective parents, and all the gods were getting along. _

_The Big Three weren't bickering amongst themselves, having a dick measuring contest. Zeus' godly sons weren't antagonizing their siblings but were playing nice. Hera wasn't moody and sour, and seemed to thoroughly enjoying the presence of her stepchildren. Amphitrite and Sally were chatting like old friends, as were Triton and—Naruko. _

_But not just the blonde, blue-eyed beauty, it was the pregnant blonde, blue-eyed beauty, and with his acute godly senses, that child in her, six months along given the size, was his. _

_The anti-shinobi nearly fell over right then and there._

_His body locked up, however, preventing from actually falling, due to the shock of yet another piece of information that added to this already confusing pile of puzzle pieces: there, hidden in the shadows on top of the stadium's humongous press box, were four black-clad individuals with grinning masks of alabaster white on their faces._

_The sounds of all the cheering faded away, and Shin'en could only hear the sound of his heart thumping like the cadence of the far-outdated war drum used during the likes of the American Revolution. _

_What was going on here?_

_Where was he? An alternate dimension? He could feel the chakra running through his coils, strong as it ever was, and he could feel the chakra in Naruko, their baby, and in Yūrei, and he could feel the divine power brimming off the gods and demigods, and also up in the stands were Magnus Chase, Alex Fierro, TJ Jr., Halfborn Gunderson, and Mallory Keen, all of them physically dead, all of them einherjar. _

_Greco-Romans, Egyptians, Norse—characters from all the books were here in this one spot, all apparently attending Goode High School, strongly indicating that Shin'en was somehow stuck in some High School AU—thankfully not a mortal AU; if that were the case, he probably would've jumped the gun already and slaughtered the whole stadium—and he had no idea how he got here._

_He had no idea how Naruko was here, and as to why she was pregnant, yeah, she and him had some very long, passionate nights of sex together after she found him and Akatsuki at the western border of the known world, but she couldn't have been so far along as she was, they had both taken steps to prevent a pregnancy in the first place. _

_As for Yūrei being alive, as for them being here, watching him play football in the presence of his overly extended family…that didn't make a lick of sense._

_It was impossible. It was improbable. He had seen them beheaded, their heads mounted on pikes in public, and then he had destroyed their bodies in a justified episode of total fury. The fact that it was so wrong for them to be alive and well was what was blocking Shin'en from immediately leaping right up to them to tackle them all in a bone-crushing group hug. _

_An attosecond finally passed since Shin'en noted Yūrei's presence and had all of these inner thoughts, and something else finally occurred to him after he tried to remember what had happened earlier this day:_

_He couldn't remember a single thing that happened this day._

_That was impossible. He had an ever-active photographic memory and the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan, and with the countermeasures he had in place in the event of divine memory tampering, there was no way he could ever have amnesia, but that was just it: he remembered everything else._

_Being at the orphanage, its destruction, his rampage, his dream, his time spent talking with Summer Rose in Remnant, his conversation with Susano'o, his training at the Cloud, Yugito, Killer Bee, Darui, Cee, the Third Raikage, Ay, the Fourth Raikage, Ei, his black-ops with Yūrei, his split personalities, Gatou, Kimiko, Sachiko, Amon, Hiyumi, Nanako, Saeko, and Shin. He remembered going back to the Cloud after killing Yagura, the Chunin Exams with Darui, Karui, and Omoi, the invasion, the battle with the Tailed-Beasts, all the shinobi, those he killed, the battle with Naruko and Sasuke, killing the Third Raikage, losing his arm, the period he was in his weakened state, amassing power, all the dimensional adventures he went on, the little twins that were his children, Ryuk, high school and the grocery store with Asteria, Annabeth, Hunter, and Gabe in the Xenophobic world, his return to the godly world to fight the Titans, his sixteenth birthday, his return to the Ninja World and borderline take-over of Akatsuki, training with those monsters, Naruko's arrival, the consummation of their love, and finally came the time to put everything into motion._

_Naruko departed for the Leaf, Sasori and Deidara for the Hidden Sand, Hidan and Kakuzu for the Hidden Waterfall, he and Kisame for the Hidden Stone, Tobi and Zetsu for where reports of the Three-Tails were coming from, and Pain and Konan for where the Six-Tails Jinchuuriki was rumored to be. After that…_

_It was all blank._

_Shin'en heard a low, slow sound, and it took him a second to realize that it was the referee blowing the whistle to start the game, and a whole new rush of questions ran through Shin'en's mind:_

_How was he supposed to behave?_

_What was he like?_

_Was he soft, couldn't hurt a fly?_

_Or was he like he usually was?_

_Really, all of these questions and more could be bunched under this one umbrella question: who was he in the apparent alternate dimension?_

_With the football rapidly spiraling through the air, coming right at him, Shin'en concluded that he was just going to have to wing it, pay attention to the crowd, and react accordingly. He was going to have to "put this game away," as the phrase went, meaning rack up enough points to where he could be pulled from the game and the backups could finish it out, leaving him ample time to think._

_Shin'en caught the ball and was off, doing his absolute best to keep it at a believable speed for a teenager, and not turn anyone into tapioca with a slight shoulder check. _

-the entire first chapter of this story

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en did indeed put the game away, as the phrase went, and was also the direct cause behind setting the Guinness World Record for Longest First Quarter of a High School Varsity Football Game, along with Longest First Quarter of an American Football Game, thanks to all the time that was spent in calling in ambulances for the people that Shin'en went after, these people being ones of strategic value, like the quarterback, halfback, leading wide receiver, the linebackers, the cornerback, and the other wide receiver was actually soon to be DOA because he popped something off to Shin'en that no one really should ever say, least of all to a planet-killing demigod.

More on that later.

Anyway, as soon as he pushed off with his foot—even though he was exercising so much restraint, he still caused a small mound of tire bits to rocket a few feet into the air—he was monitoring _everything_. The way the demigods on the field were executing their blocks, with particular focus on how much strength they were putting behind it; he was focusing on how the crowd was reacting to each bit of stimulus, whether they were cringing and panicking over too much being shown, or were getting excited at the big hits. Shin'en was also keeping track of his immediate surroundings, plotting a path through the players to the endzone that involved the least amount of people, while also prepping to execute finesse moves.

Shin'en really didn't want to bulldoze into anyone, as he was pretty sure they were going to die.

Violently.

He made it to the endzone without being touched, sending everyone into a frenzy, with air horns going off, cheering, stomping on the bleachers, etc. The most important thing was all of the looks and smiles shared by his immediate family, Naruko, Persephone, Sally, Paul, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Triton, and he supposed Annabeth counted as family, the summary of the energy being shared between them being _there he goes again_.

Up on top of the press box, the reactions of Yūrei were slightly different, with Yūwaku expressing disappointment that no one got ran over and turned into paste.

Shin'en concluded that him making kickoff returns was a common occurrence, and then came the hard part: knowing which other positions he played, the plays themselves, and how he played everything. It turned out that he, along with all of the other demigod boys, played everything. Kickoff, kick return, offense, defense, punt, punt return, and field goal. It made sense, all of them with their supernatural physical prowess—the strength to fight through blocks, the speed to keep up with receivers, the reaction to the play, etc.—particularly their stamina, made them the best football players Goode High School was ever going to see, so why _wouldn't_ you put them in as much as possible? Especially since they could keep going the whole game through.

After monitoring how everyone played—taking things seriously, putting in enough strength to knock people down but not injure them—Shin'en had enough of a grasp of the mindset of the demigods: take this seriously, put forth effort, but not enough that there was blood. Funnily enough, that notion came into direct conflict with his training, and the plan of putting ending this game ASAP to where he could just go sit on the bench without arousing suspicion and ponder heavily on his circumstances.

So, on the kickoff immediately following his touchdown, Shin'en sprinted all the way down the field and made it look easy when he ripped the ball clean from the returner's grasp, coincidentally breaking the boy's arm in the process, and he scored another touchdown…and then they all had to wait for the on-field medics to stabilize the kid with the broken arm, get him on the gurney and off the field, an annoying process that involved everyone kneeling and then clapping.

However, Shin'en was rewarded with a wellspring of information in the form of whispers and hushed voices, all of which he was privy to thank to his hydrokinetic lipreading. Opening his hearing up to that much noise would've been disorienting, so he stuck with the water movement in the muscles of the people's mouths.

"There he goes again…"

"He said he was going to take it easy…"

"We talked about this…"

"Those damn ninja up there taught him to be like this…"

"I'll talk with him the next time he's over here."

"Seph, you know how much he only sparingly listens to you."

"Yeah, but I'm his big sister. I'll use my Bambi Eyes on him."

Annabeth sighed, and the other demigoddesses that were cheerleaders either shook their heads or stared at Persephone, who was staring across the field where Shin'en was on a knee, just so that he didn't attract any more attention than what was already on him.

This was a very enlightening development, and Shin'en was glad he didn't have so much practice in having to restrain himself from harming such weak people. Because of the broken arm, he had learned that his brutal behavior was commonplace, or had been, at least, and that he did have a historical connection to Yūrei in this world, wherever or whenever this was supposed to be. It was also clear that he had a reputation, because the coaches of the other team were discussing how to avoid him and try to get rid of him, assigning players the duty of coming all the way across the field to simply nail his side in the hopes of knocking him out, giving him a concussion, or breaking a bone.

That was just funny.

Yūrei was rather pleased with his action, and their approval made something stir in Shin'en, something old, something he hadn't felt in years. Them up there nodding and giving thumbs-up made Shin'en feel like he was glowing, and he realized that he was actually smiling. Not a cold, malicious, sarcastic, or serpentine smile, but the happy, proud, over-the-moon kind of smile that a child had when they received praised and recognition from their family.

Shin'en liked this feeling.

He liked it a lot.

He liked it so much that after the next kickoff, and he showed leniency by simply tackling the returner hard enough that his wind left and he was gasping on the ground like a fish, and the other team's offense actually took the field, lining up in the shotgun with Shin'en as linebacker—truly unfortunate for anyone, really—he went running right around the line to the quarterback, having dropped back to pass with his back turned, and rammed him, putting his facemask right into the quarterback's exposed humerus, instantly splintering the bone, making the quarterback scream and the crowds wince.

The referees threw flags and Shin'en was called for unnecessary roughness, even though the ball had only been about two inches from the quarterback's fingers on the pass, which sailed out of bounds.

Once again, the game halted as the medics did their thing with the broken arm, and this time, there was drama. The enemy coach was furious.

"Hey!"

There was a ruckus in the stands, the people shouting and whispering, standing up. Poseidon was the first on his feet, Naruko and Triton tying for second just a hair's breadth of time after the sea god, and the order after that was unimportant. Yūrei was up there, Sukina with two senbon in her hand, waiting for Shin'en's signal—and there it was again. Not that it had entirely dissipated from before, but that warm, fulfilling feeling that stemmed from their approval and their support came back full force, making him feel giddy, happy, and excited.

In spite of himself, Shin'en found himself _grinning_ under his helmet, reveling in nostalgia. Sukina at a distance, ready to strike when _he_ was ready. When _he _decided it was time. It was the same tactic they used in assassinating politicians, construction foremen, and other targets. Shin'en found himself remembering the good days when they were performing good missions, like killing serial rapists and murderers, freeing sex slaves, wiping out camps of bandits and marauders, etc.

"Oh, you think this is funny?"

Shin'en's smile was wiped from his face as he was taken out of his revelry, and he was not happy about it.

The referees had surrounded the demigod and the approaching enemy coach, and Shin'en's own coach, ironically Gleeson Hedge the satyr, was also there. The players were all on their feet, ready to rumble, and the gods in the stands were up and tense. Shin'en realized they weren't ready to jump in for his sake, but for the sake of everyone else out here on this field.

That made sense: Shin'en still hadn't entirely discounted the idea of simply bolting and finding a quiet place to think about the how, what, where, why, when, and who. He also wasn't remiss about leaving a small mound of bodies in his wake.

The other coach was almost in Shin'en's face, and it was clear that the only thing stopping him from throttling the demigod was the presence of the referees, who were actually holding on to the coach but were struggling to keep him still because he was so tall and packed with muscle.

"That boy's coming from a single-mother household, and he got a full athletic free ride to be the quarterback for _Alabama_! And you just ruined that for him! _You just ruined his life_!"

"Easy, Coach, easy," one of the refs gasped.

Hedge was fingering his baseball bat—why they had allowed him to bring that to a football game, Shin'en did not know—but his eyes were on the demigod. He was sweating, adrenaline coursing through his body, heartrate elevated and body temperature climbing. He was panicking.

It made Shin'en wonder just _what_ he was famed for in this world.

"No! I will not take it easy!" the coach bellowed, and he ripped an arm free and jabbed his finger almost into Shin'en's facemask. "This kid is a _menace_! He goes out of his way to severely injure other players! He's turned good kids with promising lives ahead of them into cripples! Kids have _died_ from injuries they got from you, and I'll be damned before I let you hurt anymore of my boys!"

Shin'en tilted his head to the side, helmet clacking against his shoulder pad. "For someone so educated in my accomplishments, you display an interesting amount of bravado."

He spoke so simply and casually, with a trace amount of interest, like a scientist observing a rat in a maze.

"Easy cupcake," Hedge growled, standing slightly behind and to the side of Shin'en. "_I've_ got my eye on you—anymore hits like that, and you're out of the game, and _off the team_."

There was a fair amount of warning and imploring in those last three words, a look of meaning on the satyr's face that was lost to Shin'en. Evidently, being on the football team had some underlying importance to it, perhaps some promise made to Persephone or anyone of the family.

Well, he'd certainly exercise more discretion in his tackles, but he wasn't going to take it easy. He broken the arm of the kick returner, who also doubled as the halfback, and he had broken the arm of the quarterback, which effectively crippled the majority of the offense. His chosen objective to end this game ASAP was well underway, but the part of trying not to arouse suspicion that he was technically an imposter needed refinement.

Shin'en nodded, pulling off an excellent _cowed_ look.

Hedge bobbed his head, and looked at the ref. "I'll keep my eye on him," and he thrust his bat at the enemy coach, "and _you're_ gonna get back to your side of the field and quit yelling at _my _boys. This one's been through some shit in his life and we've been trying to get him on track."

"He should be _locked up_."

"Alright, Coach," said the referee. "You've made your point, and we'll all be watching Jackson from here on. If he injures another one of your players intentionally, he's gone."

"Lot of good that does Casey and Jones."

With that last growl, the coach stormed back to his sideline, where the away crowd clapped and cheered. The quarterback had cleared the field by now, and everyone stood back up to the sound of subdued clapping from the home side.

"Hey," Hedge said. "You feeling okay? You've been doing a whole lot better in the past years about moving on from your Yūrei mentality, but you've been slipping during the season. It's not like you to do anything that'll disappoint your wife, sister, and mom."

"I'm fine. Just a little excited, I guess."

"Well calm down. I'm serious about booting you, and you know that'll crush Persephone. She loves watching you play ball."

Shin'en swallowed, actually feeling that.

The coach was fortunate; if the demigod had tilted his head to the other side and splayed his fingers across the side of his knee, there would've been a pair of needles in the coach's neck, ones dipped in a concoction of poisons, venoms, and toxins so potent, that just smelling the fumes would be enough to cause light side effects.

Anyway, it appeared that something along the lines of he had been with Yūrei, done very horrible, bad things with them—probably the same, or at the very least, very similar to what he had actually done with them—and he had been "rescued" from them, and for several years they had been trying to break him of his Yūrei mentality in the effort of making him satisfactorily functionable member of the modern society, and where he had been making progress, playing football had apparently caused a regression, one that involved intentionally striking at key players in key positions in order to weaken the enemy team.

Shin'en couldn't see why the gods and demigods would be opposed to that, seeing as how they were all warriors, and weakening the enemy was kind of their thing.

There was just so much about this situation that he didn't know about that it was honestly pissing him off…and to a lesser degree, scaring him.

Hedge had said "wife," not "fiancé," meaning he and Naruko were lawfully wedded. Of course, the satyr could've just been cutting corners and didn't want to say fiancé, but Shin'en felt no ring on Naruko's finger. It could've just been elsewhere, like in a box or in a Seal, but still: no ring.

What else had happened in this world? What was the story here? Where was the necessary information? How could it be obtained?

As the game picked back up and went on, these were the questions that were plaguing Shin'en's mind, and his head was starting to hurt. No, literally, it felt like hot needles were steadily being poked through his skull and into his brain.

The hits he took and delivered only made the pain worse.

As linebacker, when the receiver came on a slant route across the middle, Shin'en just crouched right in the young man's way and upended him just by being there. The light impact jarred the demigod's brain, but the receiver had it worse because he tumbled over in the air and landed on his head in such a way that he hyperextended his neck. Because all Shin'en did was more or less stand there, he got a free pass.

The other coach was madder than hell, but the referees just restricted him to the sideline.

The next play was another pass, on that got deflected by Frank the Defensive Tackle, and Shin'en caught the spiraling ball and ran it all the way for the touchdown, providing his team with all three scores so far. The Goode's Eagle's offense hadn't touched the field yet.

They did after the next series, in which the enemy made clear, conscious effort to not run a play anywhere near Shin'en, but they still went three and out because they were normal humans up against ten other demigods.

Shin'en was the punt returner, and in the effort of not injuring anyone, he decided not to return the ball, and just take a knee where he was. Since he didn't actually know that much about American football, with everything he did know coming from sporadic conversation about it with Hunter, Amelia, and Annabeth, Shin'en didn't know that in order to avoid returning the punt you had to wave your arm to signal the fair catch. Because of that, one enemy player thought it was his time to shine, and after receiving leniency from one of the demigods—leniency in that he didn't get outright pancaked—he sprinted at full tilt all the way down the field.

Of course, even if Shin'en had called the fair catch, this player would've shot right into him anyway, since he was orders from his coach to try and injure Shin'en.

The crowd gasped and shouted, and as soon as Shin'en caught the ball and he went down for the knee, the other player made contact Less damage would've been done to him if he ran into a telephone pole. Shin'en wasn't stupid and knew of the intentions coming at him, and all he did was flex his muscles. The player's goal was to ram his facemask into Shin'en's crotch, and he had thrown his weight forward to do just that, only with the downward movement to the knee, the target zone was then occupied by shoulder pads and helmet.

The player struck facemask first, and a chain reaction happened: first, that facemask instantly exploded. Energy was transferred to the rest of the helmet, breaking it apart in a very rare happening in football. Second, the spine crumpled in on itself between the shoulder blades. Third, forward momentum brought the legs up and over in an unintentional flip, and did not disperse. Fourth, the player, with a broken helmet and spine, went bouncing across the turf for the next ten yards before friction brought him to a stop in a heap.

That player turned out to be the leading cornerback, meaning where Shin'en had effectively crippled the offense by breaking the arms of the quarterback and halfback and making the wide receiver break his own neck more or less, and now he was on track to get rid of the defense. Once again, he got a free pass because the player had ran into him, and it was clear that the intention was to do that regardless of a fair catch or not.

His head was also left ringing.

The next play, with Jason as quarterback, Shin'en got the handoff for a run, and literally broke the middle linebacker's ankles. The young man planted and tried to redirect his body after Shin'en juked, and he ended up tearing his Achilles tendon. _That one_ was actually just a freak accident, as opposed to the most recent two, in which Shin'en had used just a little bit of power to get those bodies flipping just right.

He scored, and after the field goal, that made it 28-0 with 13:43 left in the first quarter. Only a minute and seventeen seconds had passed on the game clock, whereas over half an hour had already passed since the game started, and it was going to be so much longer now since they had to wait to get the linebacker off the field due to what basically amounted to being a broken foot.

After that cleared up, it was a simple kick off, a touchback, and then a forced fumble on the very next play that Shin'en didn't pick up and run back for the touchdown, because that kind of speed would've raised too many eyebrows. As it was, Carter Kane landed on the ball, recovering it for the Eagles, putting the offense on the field at the sixteen-yard line.

Another handoff to Shin'en and he took it up the middle. He jumped over the other starting linebacker, an imposing and impressive specimen of teenager to be sure, who had dove forward as soon as he saw the ball coming at him. He missed, obviously, and there was another unfortunate happening in that he rammed his head right into the big butt of his own teammate, the tackle, who was being violently driven back by a pair of big and tall demigods that Shin'en didn't know.

The linebacker didn't break his neck, but he was concussed and pulled from the game.

Shin'en had taken out the quarterback, halfback, wide receiver, cornerback, and now both linebackers, while also making the score 35-0 with over thirteen minutes left in the first quarter.

After the next kickoff was when things finally came to a head. Hedge called a defensive play to match up the offensive formation, and it required Shin'en to be head-up with the inner receiver…who decided he needed to speak.

"That's yo sister of there, right? That cheerleader? Man, she's one _fine_ bitch. I think after this game, I'm going to bring her home with me, and tap her ass _all_ night long!"

In the stands, Naruko bolted to her feet, her face ashen as she sensed the massive spike in negative emotion that originated from Shin'en, and the little ones inside of her started to kick as they picked up on something wrong. The Jinchuuriki's sudden motion did not go unnoticed, nor was her facial expression one that left anybody wondering why she had moved so suddenly. Persephone saw this and whipped around mid-cheer.

"_Percy, NO!_"

Up on top of the press box, Yūrei had proud smiles on behind their masks.

The ball barely twitched, but it didn't matter to Shin'en. His hand came forward and clamped around the throat of the receiver as soon as he pushed forward off his feet. The boy was lifted clean off the ground, his legs going forward before ending up dangling and kicking. There were screams and shouts, the blowing of whistles, and the panicked running of a little over a hundred football players converging on one location.

"Put me down!" came the gurgle.

"_Ya got it!_" Shin'en shrieked.

A little flick of his wrist was all it took to transfer enough kinetic energy into the wretch in his grasp to send him hurtling through the air. His head caught on the unforgiving metal of the goalpost, and the crunch was heard all the way up in the stands. The soon-to-be corpse flopped to the ground, head rolling unnaturally.

There was brief pause on the field, and then one of the deadliest brawls—no, _the_ deadliest brawl in all of football history broke out, because in all of its history, there were _zero_ fatalities directly attributed to any football fight. Mostly because no fight ever involved superhumans, one of which had a quartet of very protective murderers on his side.

However, the funny thing was that the whole brawl, if the clock for it started as soon as the first whistle blew, lasted less than three seconds, because the gods got involved and exercised some divine authority. Still, it was enough time for Shin'en's foot to snap out and connect with the belly of the closest person—luckily someone of the other team with a host of teammates behind him—and execute a taijustu technique that went all the way back to his first chakra control exercises under the guidance of the matron.

For those that don't remember literature from five years ago, when Shin'en had first unlocked his chakra in the face of the attacking wolves at five years old and subsequently began chakra control training, his control was predictably piss poor, especially when matched up with just how much chakra was circulating through his coils (a jōnin's level, at arguably the age of a toddler). So, when attempting to tree-walk, he would accidentally expel so much chakra out of his foot that the whole tree trunk exploded. When he found himself self training in the Hidden Cloud, he adapted that into a taijustu technique and only ever used it in major battles.

While a football game was not a major battle, Shin'en was so mentally impaired right now—how else would you explain him having such a reaction to a talking gnat, even if the gnat was talking about his sister?—his head feeling like it was being attacked by a million branding irons, that his body just reacted instinctually to the extremely minor threat by taking care of it with extremely major prejudice.

Shin'en's foot connected with the player's stomach and there was an eruption of out-of-control chakra, chakra that had been made strong through years of training and experience.

The player, and all of those behind him all the way to beyond the sideline, all the way into the away bleachers, exploded into red mist. The metal of the stands screeched under the force and were torn asunder, the people occupying the area dying in a painless, horrible manner.

Perhaps not a brawl, then, as there was no actual fighting involved so much as a quick, half-second eruption of blood…gallons of it.

Before anything else happened, the gods were there, Poseidon attempting to tackle his son only to get tossed away, the other divinities using their powers to get everyone away, teleporting them to the parking lot, already working on memory alteration.

Shin'en did not stay for any kind of fight or further drama. The wings of Satori erupted from his back, tearing through his shoulder pads and jersey. With a flap, her rocketed into the air, and with another, he achieved Mach speeds and headed East, streaking over the Atlantic. The rest of his football uniform, the helmet, the pants, the various pads, and the cleats, all burned to ash, not able to withstand the tremendous air friction that came with moving faster than sound.

When he reached his destination, he shot straight down, plowing into the water and keeping his speed, defying conventional physics. Down, down, down did Shin'en go, the water getting darker and darker, colder and heavier. When he reached the absolute pitch blackness of 20,000 feet, where everything was still and calm, Shin'en gently touched down on the rocky bottom.

And then he just gave in.

Immediately, a flood of memories poured into head. Not the memories of how he ended up where he was from the Shinobi World, but the memories of this life. The early birthday parties with his mother and sister, being separated and then kidnapped, his memory wiped at the age of ten, being found and rescued by Yūrei, spending the next 30 months killing with them, before being pulled across the world back to the States, his memory coming back piece by piece for an unknown purpose, the struggle of all the teachings and philosophies and morals of the Bloody Ghosts coming into conflict with that of the Greeks and what they considered to be "good."

The quests, the good times, the bad times, the nights spent curled in Sukina's arms, the nights spent curled in Persephone's. The sleepless nights, ones where all he did was cry all by himself because of the trauma, the faces of the begging. The nightmares, the tears of Sally as she felt for him. Going to school, living a double life as a demigod and an assassin out of loyalty and love for Yūrei, his psyche being torn apart as he tried to earn the approval and praise of Arashi, Bullock, Yūwaku, and Sukina, versus it being showered upon him by Sally and Persephone unconditionally.

Memories of the shouting and the crying, his hands shaking as he held a kunai to his mother's throat, his mind and body warring with itself on what to do, the same situations happening with Sukina and Persephone. The shame, the guilt, the anguish…and the happiness, the joy, and the childish, innocent pride.

Going out for treats, spending nights at Montauk, playing in the surf, going to waterparks and amusement parks, carnivals, going fishing with Poseidon and Persephone due to Zeus taking the initiative in fidelity and paternity, giving the okay for the gods to actually spend time with and show just how much they really did love their children. Eating ice cream atop the scaffolding of unfinished skyscrapers with Yūrei, visiting the world's most exotic places as they toppled governments, retired dictators and terrorists, and eradicated drug factories, shipments, and employees. Shin'en had a big collection of souvenirs from all those missions, and he had brought back presents for his sister, mom, and dad.

Tensions had always ran extremely high between Yūrei and the gods. The gods were all backing Poseidon in his fury over what the assassins had done to his beloved Percy, and the assassins defended themselves, citing that they hadn't even known who Percy was when they took him in, and after so much time together, they weren't about to let one of their own go, and Shin'en, according to the memories, hadn't wanted either side to fight, finding love in both groups. Out of love and respect for him, a very fragile truce had been erected.

And then Naruko had entered the scene.

Shin'en remembered being struck by how pretty she was at the age of fifteen, falling for her instantly. She fell for him, too, and they just hit it off right then and there. Sally and Poseidon approved, as did Persephone in the same special way that Shin'en approved of Annabeth: it will be allowed and somewhat supported, but the second there was a broken heart, there was going to be blood.

Typical stupid big sister.

A few years down the line, and Naruko not only became his betrothed, but also the mother of their child.

Still, Shin'en had struggled with his love and loyalty to his biological family and to Yūrei. The bond he had developed with them during those thirty months was _powerful_, so strong that he was torn up inside on who to follow. Naruko had certainly helped ground him in this life, providing him with a third option, one that didn't deal with either side.

That had been the point of joining the football team, to give him something to focus on. Obviously, it had backfired, since his Yūrei training had manifested in his performance by way of neutralizing key enemy players.

Anyway, the game that had just ended was the state semi-finals, and Naruko was due in the coming December, and man was that going to be one hell of a conversation coming up, especially because in all of his memories of these new adventures with Yūrei, not a single one of them pertained to acquiring Satori, the Zero-Tails, the Three-Heads, or Orochimaru, all four of which Shin'en could still feel in his body, along with his Eternal Mangekyou and all of his incredible chakra.

In the crushing blackness of the depths, Shin'en took a breath.

It was now certain that he was in an alternate dimension, and now he had the memories of his life in this dimension. The big questions now were: how did he get here…

…and did he want to leave?

The question of how he got here could easily be attributed to any god, most likely Susano'o or Izanagi. If that was the case, then the problem could be just as easily solved. Shin'en would hate it, but he could work himself up into an emotional avalanche and trigger another Dimensional Quake. A bit petulant and childish, throwing a glorified tantrum to get what he wanted, but the results could not be denied.

However, why _would_ he want to leave?

Here he had Naruko, pregnant and promised to him, and they loved each other just as strongly as he loved (Other?) Naruko—speaking of, in all of those memories, not one pertained to just how she and Yūrei were existing in this PJO world, nor was there any explanation as to how Shin'en ended up with chakra in the first place…oh well.

Along with Naruko, Shin'en also had his beloved big sister Persephone. He had his actual mother, Sally, and his father, Poseidon. All three of them loved and adored him. Yūrei was here, Arashi, Sukina, Bullock, and Yūwaku; all of them loved and adored him. Shin'en was getting more love and support in this life than he had ever gotten in his other life.

There was peace in this world. The gods were being the outstanding parents that they could be with their divine powers, and they were taking responsibly for their domains across the globe, inspiring the other pantheons to do the same, turning the planet into the ideal Utopia. There was no crime, no corruption, no pollution, plenty of resources to go around thanks to better management, and there was no blood that had to be shed to get to this point.

It was the ideal peace that Shin'en had wanted ever since his time in the _Death Note_ dimension, when he had used the Notebook to bring about a nuclear holocaust across the globe after spending so much time weighing the pros and cons of writing out the lives of so many people so that peace would be achieved.

In this world, he had Naruko, Persephone, Sukina, Arashi, Yūwaku, Bullock, Sally, the love and support of the gods, and peace on Earth.

He had all he ever wanted here—so why leave?

Shin'en nodded to himself in the darkness of the deep, deep water. He didn't know how he ended up here in this alternate dimension, but it didn't matter. He didn't just have a _good_ life here; he had a _great_ life. He had all he ever wanted, and all he was ever going to want.

He started to ascend, falling victim to the trap of the Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Sure, the super jutsu allowed you to live out your dream, whatever it was, but its real power was to keep you in that dream, inhibiting your will. It made you not _want _to leave, even if you realized that it was just a dream, or a reality so askew to what you had previously been in that you rationalized that it couldn't possibly be real. To put the Infinite Tsukuyomi into perspective, if the likes of Batman were to be caught in the jutsu, and he was shown a dream life with his parents, even his outrageous iron will would succumb to the jutsu.

However, something that Batman didn't have—something that just about everyone caught in the Infinite Tsukuyomi didn't have—was nine separate personalities that had been previously locked away, but due to these new circumstances weakening the mental hold on their shackles, were now free.

And they weren't about to let themselves fade from existence because their main guy was lost in his own little world.

Mid-ascension to the surface, Shin'en found his consciousness ripped into his seldom-visited mindscape.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Nothing had changed about this icy world. The ocean was still a deep scarlet, filled with billions of corpses floating just under the surface. The sun was still shining in a cloudless sky. The ice of this main platform was still bluish-white, and the ice of the once-intact icebergs was also still bluish-white, but now those icebergs were broken at their tops, their respective prisoners all standing before Shin'en on the flat, ice island.

The demigod was not happy as he looked at the mental and physical manifestations of his weakness, proof that he had not been strong enough at one point to handle the stress.

There was Gatou the Torturer, looking no different than he had when he had first been born at ten years.

There was Saeko the Seductress, still as voluptuous and alluring as she had been made to be.

There was Nanako the Nurse, the former Rebellion mascot turned mass-murderer after an ambush on her camp resulted in the deaths of most of the men under her care, ones she had just stabilized and healed.

There was Kimiko the Little Girl that had murdered her whole adoptive family, still clutching her dolphin plush toy, eyes still red, cheeks still puffy, knife still clutched tightly under her toy.

There was Hiyumi the Girl, who served no other purpose than to be just that, a girl. A deadly one.

There was Shin the Killer, the silent personality that was born out of Shin'en's developed bloodlust and taste for battle.

There was Sachiko the Psychopath, the insane little demon child that would kill everyone and everything in gruesome, horrible ways just for the fun of it.

Finally, there was Amon the Gentleman, the one personality that did not get any screen time during the Blood War arc due to lack of motivation.

As his name implied, he was dressed very well in expensive, well-maintained, traditional Japanese attire of a kimono and hakama pants. He was very much a man, with a strong, sharp jaw, narrow, serious green eyes, broad shoulders, and a muscular physique. He had just a little bit of hair hanging down from his chin, and all the black hair on his head was pulled straight up into the traditional chonmage style.

"What do _you_ want?" Shin'en glowered at them all distastefully.

"For you to pull your head out fo your ass because it's not a hat," Gatou shrugged.

"And what does that mean?"

Saeko was the one who answered, a hand on Kimiko and Sachiko's shoulders as she was more or less their mother figure in this icy world. "Think back to what you were doing before you woke up in a football game."

"The Akatsuki broke camp and we made way for our respective Jinchuuriki targets."

"All for the sake of…" Nanako prompted.

"Sealing the Tailed-Beasts into the Gedo Statue to recreate the Ten-Tails to initiate the Infinite Tsukuyomi."

"Yep," Hiyumi said, popping the "P." "Guess where we're at, dude."

Sachiko giggled, her pupils dilating, her body trembling, blood soaked into her clothes. A few fresh tears began to fall from Kimiko's eyes and she looked meaningfully at Shin'en.

A pit began to form in the demigod's stomach. "Impossible," he said, his voice kept even. "The Infinite Tsukuyomi is just a genjutsu. Whatever you see in it, your dream, won't be real. Here, I can feel the water inside of people, in the air, across the planet. That is a divine six sense that cannot be fooled by any genjutsu."

"That is correct," Amon said, his voice deep like a gorge but smooth as silk. "Our hydrokinetic attunement cannot be fooled by any genjutsu. However, what is it that makes you think the Infinite Tsukuyomi is _just_ a genjutsu, albeit a super one?"

"Obito's intel."

"Yeah, but you never let me torture him to make sure that intel was accurate."

"Shut up, Gatou."

"Fuck you, Hiyumi."

"Go fuck yourself with you scissors."

"Children!" Amon barked. "That is _enough_."

Amazingly, they actually ended their bickering on the spot.

"It's not a dream," Kimiko said softly. "It's _real_."

Shin'en stared long and hard at the little one. "What do you mean _it's real_?"

In the sky above, clouds started to roll in from the horizon, and a cold breeze started to drift through. Kimiko pressed herself tighter against Saeko, and Sachiko giggled again, her breaths coming out in heavy grunts."

"The Infinite Tsukuyomi isn't just a super genjutsu," Hiyumi explained. "It's a _divine_ genjutsu, made by Tsukuyomi himself."

"What it does," Saeko continued, "instead of just thrusting you into your own happy little dreamscape, it instead takes your consciousness across time and space, across the Multiverse, and puts you into the shoes of an alternate you that is _living_ your dream."

"The Percy you were dropped into has everything you want," Nanako said.

"It's got Naruko, Persephone, Yūrei, and happiness the world over."

Shin'en looked at Gatou. "So what's the catch? You're all being ominous, like you're leading up to some devastating reveal."

"That's because we are," Saeko gently confirmed. "Percy, what's happening right now, and what has to be done to prevent it…it…"

"It'll kill you on the inside."

All eyes turned to Shin, for those were the very first words he had ever spoken.

"…don't keep me in suspense," Shin'en said after a period of silence. "What's going on?"

"The Infinite Tsukuyomi and its partner, Divine Genesis: World of Trees, are two jutsu created by a single purpose for a single reason," Amon said.

Hiyumi picked it up. "Over a thousand years ago, Kaguya Otsustuki arrived on the planet, and was so beautiful that she caught the attention of Izanagi. They slept together and produced twins, Hagoromo and Hamura."

"When Kaguya's mortal lover found out," Saeko continued, "he ordered her death. On the run, she went for the Divine Tree and ate the chakra fruit, combining the residual divine seed in her with the purest source of chakra in existence."

Nanako said, "To quell all violence in the world and bring a total end to any threat to her and her children, Kaguya demonstrated her incredible power and was then revered as a goddess. Her sons were born at the end of nine months and led happy little childhoods. Then they got older and started asking questions."

"They found out Mommy was actually a tyrant, and so they tried to lead a righteous uprising against her. It only partially worked." Gatou put his arms behind his head. "Kaguya cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi and took out the whole army, only her sons being immune, and had everyone wrapped up in World of Trees jutsu. After that battle, before she could be defeated, she merged with the Divine Tree and became the Ten-Tails. One perk was that all of the people caught in the branches had their life energy sucked out of them and transferred to Kaguya."

"Oh." That pit in Shin'en's stomach had grown into an entire cavern. "How did the Infinite Tsukuyomi even get cast?"

"Black Zetsu is the physical manifestation of Kaguya's will. He was born just before she was sealed into the Moon," Amon said. "For the past millennium, he's been tirelessly and carefully working on bringing his mother back. The current state of the world can be laid at his feet due to his machinations. He orchestrated the kidnapping of Naruko to draw you to the Leaf and enlisted Itachi's aid in killing the rest of the Akatsuki. While you were away, Black Zetsu possessed Obito and had Nagato's Rinnegan implanted while Itachi performed the Reanimation to bring Madara back. With the Rinnegan, Madara was made flesh and blood again, and then he was given those Rinnegan, which are his original eyes."

Shin'en's brow arched. "How did Nagato get Madara's eyes?"

"Black Zetsu," Hiyumi supplied.

"How did a grown man's eyes fit into the skull of a child?"

"With great pain."

"Makes sense. Carry on."

Saeko carried the explanation forward. "Madara, with his Rinnegan and flesh-and-blood body, Sealed the newly revived Ten-Tails into himself and promptly cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi. What Madara doesn't know is that Black Zetsu is soon to betray him and use all of the chakra connected by the World of Trees to revive Kaguya."

And it finally clicked.

Shin'en was going to die.

Naruko was going to die.

Yugito and Bee were going to die.

Shin'en needed to get out of here. He needed to break the genjutsu and kick some ass, and in order to break the genjutsu he would need to—

Thunder boomed overhead as the demigod's heart caught and his eyes went wide.

"No," he said shortly, not entirely _all there_. "No," he said again. "No…no…no…_no…NO!_"

Blood vessels popped across his eyes, his pupils dilating and his face contorting.

"_Liars! This is just a ploy by all of you to get back at me for locking you away for all these years! I've had it with all of you! I'm going to-!"_

Little Kimiko tore herself free from Saeko's grip and sprinted forward as fast as her little legs would carry her. She buried her face into Shin'en's cloak, her ten-year-old body compared to his eighteen-year-old one putting her face into his navel. She was sobbing.

Slowly, Shin'en found himself going down, his arms gently wrapping around the little girl crying in his embrace. He found himself crying too. One by one, the others all joined, and not even Sachiko was smiling anymore.

"H-How," Shin'en tried, but he choked. He tried again. "How do all of you know this?"

"We're pieces of you," Nanako said softly, her eyes red and watering. "We're all demigods."

"We've been dreaming for six years."

"What else have you seen, then?" Shin'en asked Saeko.

Hiyumi answered, "That it gets worse from here…"

"…but it all gets better at the end," Amon finished.

"When will it end?"

And Sachiko said, "One day."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Shin'en appeared in the apartment that Yūrei operated out of, the whole gang present and lounging around, watching the morning news, the featured presentation revolving around how the cure for cancer had just been made universally affordable for even the lowest of income families.

"Hey, Shin'en," Sukina greeted. "Nice outfit."

He was wearing his Akatsuki garb now, now his ridiculous football pads.

"You are and you aren't _our_ Shin'en, are you?"

"Yes."

"And in order for you to get back where you belong, you've got to kill us, don't you?"

"Yes."

Sukina nodded, and the rest of Yūrei got up from the couches, sliding down to their knees before him. Sukina beamed, brightly and happily as the morning sun shined through the window curtains.

"Hey now. Loot at us."

And Shin'en did. All of them were happily smiling, their eyes shining with pride in him and love for him.

"Now close your eyes, Shin'en, and know that we've always loved you, and we always will."

He closed his eyes, his last sight being of their smiles, and he slashed his sword in a perfect horizontal line. Before he could hear that horrible sound, he was already gone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sally was finishing the morning dishes, having made pancakes, bacon, and eggs for herself, her husband, her beloved daughter, her future daughter in law, and her pregnant daughter in law. Her thoughts dwelled heavily on her son after what had happened at the football game last night.

She blamed those damn ninja, of course, abusing his special powers and twisting him into a juvenal killing machine. Their hooks were so deep that even in the face of all the love and support she gave her son, that Poseidon and Persephone gave him, before and after his abduction, Percy still couldn't break the ninja's hold on him.

Last night was proof of that.

The gods might have altered the memories of all the mortals, but the half-bloods still had their minds intact. Why wouldn't they? They all knew who Percy was and what had happened to him.

As Sally put the last plate into the dishwasher, she felt the telltale disturbance in her motherly instincts, and immediate relief surged through her. She whipped around with a beaming smile.

"Per-!"

Before she even knew what had happened, she was dead.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Truthfully, what he had hoped for was that Yūrei was going to be enough, that the emotional shock of killing them with his own sword would be all it took to break the Infinite Tsukuyomi. Obviously it wasn't, elsewise he wouldn't have gone to Sally in the hopes that she would be enough of a tipping point. She wasn't enough, either.

It seemed that with all the times his heart had been mended, it had become strong enough to handle killing his own mother and his beloved Ghosts, and so he was driven to this one last act.

He should've just appeared right behind them to unceremoniously lop off their heads, but he didn't. He couldn't bring himself to do that. If he hadn't had that small seizure, all the memories of this life pouring into him, this would've been much easier on him. He would've tricked himself into thinking they weren't _his_ loved ones, but they had become such through a combination of preexisting feelings and newfound ones after seeing what this life had been like.

No, instead of simply appearing behind Naruko, Persephone and Annabeth in breakfast-time cafeteria of Goode High School, Shin'en instead appeared in the very middle, sword dripping with blood, a few errant drops of water leaking from his eyes as he struggled to keep his lip from trembling.

As soon as he appeared, Naruko went rigid as she picked up his emotions. Without a word, she grabbed Persephone and Annabeth and went running away as fast as she could with a pregnant belly. The rest of the cafeteria saw that, and it was an instant later that they saw Shin'en in his black-clad, menacing glory. This cafeteria full of demigods, magicians, a few einherjar, and many, many humans, suddenly became a morgue.

Once again, instead of simply doing what he needed to do, he was delaying. Instead of just going after the girls, he was swinging his sword left and right, slashing up, down, and across, cutting down everyone he could get to. Celestial bronze and Imperial gold offered no protection. The combat avatars of the Egyptians might as well have been made of paper. The strength and durability of the einherjar was nothing.

He was venting.

He was venting his hatred at the gods and the universe for ever being born, for being born to this cursed life, and for making him have to do these things. He was venting at Poseidon and Sally for their fornication, venting at Susano'o for his kidnapping—and to some extent, he was even venting at God Himself for letting the things that had happened, happen.

If He was supposed to so be kind and loving and caring of everybody and everything, then why was He letting all of this suffering go on?

Why was He letting Shin'en suffer so much?

If this was supposed to be retribution for his sins, then _fuck God_. This was too much; his heart could barely take it, and it certainly wasn't going to handle what was coming next.

In seconds, Shin'en had slaughtered nearly the whole attendance of Camp Half-Blood, Camp Jupiter, the Brooklyn House, with the only einherjar being Magnus, Alex, T.J., Mallory, and Halfborn, and the only Valkyrie being Samirah. The rest had scattered, some running for their lives while others had attempted to set up barricades and traps throughout the school, thinking he was there to exterminate them all. He wasn't, but this little display didn't do a very good job of proving otherwise.

Shin'en expanded his sense and found that the last ones he loved were making a running for the student parking lot, heading for Persephone's car. The three of them were panicking, their hearts beating wildly, their bloodstreams drenched in adrenaline, and all three were sobbing. They were confused and heartbroken, mourning for the friends that had all just died for an unknown reason at his own hand.

Shin'en went after them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The girls had almost made it when a black rod, the sheath of Percy's sword, violently erupted out of Annabeth's chest, going clean through and still had so much force that it rammed into Persephone's car, destroying the whole engine block, crumpling the hood and making the vehicle's back end lift off the ground before coming down. So much damage was done that not enough the emergency horn was sounding.

Persephone let out a strangled sob as she beheld her beloved, face down and dead in a pool of blood, a big hole going straight through her body. The golden ring on Annabeth's finger could not be seen under the all the red.

Persephone drew her sword and spun around. "_WHYYYYYY!?" _she screamed as loud as she could at her approaching little brother, soaked head to toe in the blood of their friends.

He was crying, but in the face of what he had done…

Persephone was a whirlwind of indecipherable and incomprehensible emotions. A conflicted hurricane raged and roiled inside of her as she fought against Percy. The tumult inside was reflected outside as her movements were erratic and violent, not at all like her usual flowing-like-water fighting style. She was screaming and crying, her face red and tear streaked.

Then it was over.

Naruko almost couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Percy run his own sister through the chest.

Persephone let out and quiet gasp when she felt the cold bite, its numbing sting, so cold, spreading through her. Riptide clattered to the ground by her feet. Percy's arm was around her waist, hugging her tightly to him despite his sword impaling her. With their equal height, their heads were resting perfectly on each other's shoulders.

Tears spilled from Persephone's eyes as blood leaked from the corners of her mouth. "Percy…why…?" she whispered, her arms around his neck, gripping his cloak at the back.

She could feel his body shuddering against hers, hear his throat struggle to contract enough to allow for words.

"I-I had to..."

A sound left Persephone's mouth, and blood spilled onto her little brother's shoulder. She buried her head into his shoulder, squeezing him in a crushing hug, and then her grip slackened. There was the quiet, last rush of air from her lungs, and her eyes closed for the final time.

Shin'en's hand limply dropped to his side and he let his sister slide off his sword, falling in such a way that she appeared to be the big spoon to Annabeth.

Naruko was crying as he started to make his way for her. Down on her knees, her hands on her pregnant stomach, and a begging, broken look on her red face. Her throat was so swollen that she could barely breathe, much less speak. Shin'en stood over her, his sword rising higher and higher.

Naruko could feel his emotions, all of the sorrow and despair, the self-loathing and hatred, the anguish and the mourning, the anger, the sadness…and the resolution. She didn't know why he had done this, especially in the face of _everything_, but she knew that he hadn't wanted to. He was forcing himself to do this, and it was tearing him apart.

That saddened Naruko more than anything else.

"Percy," she managed to say. "I'm so sorry."

The sword came down and the Infinite Tsukuyomi was dispelled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**With a broken heart and raging sorrow, the Dream has ended in a Nightmare.**_

_**The coming storm brings with it even more tragedy as five precious lives are unwittingly ended.**_

_**Next time on the explosive finale of the **_**Backup Plan **_**trilogy:**_

_**The Final Awakening: A Demigod's Inheritance**_


	12. Final Awakening: A Demigod's Inheritance

_The Final Awakening: A Demigod's Inheritance_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Madara heaved a sigh of relief as his Divine Genesis: World of Trees grew to have roots across the whole supercontinent. The purpose of this technique was so that everyone enjoying the infinite dream would receive sufficient energy for eternity. Their minds might have been in a world of bliss, but their bodies weren't. Their physical selves still needed food and water, and this big ass tree would provide the necessary nutrients at a steady level so that the entrapped wouldn't die of infection via their own waste. The tree would also protect from germs, bacteria, viruses, and all maladies.

The blinding light coming off the Moon faded as the Infinite Tsukuyomi completed its purpose, and Madara felt the most contentment he had ever felt in his life.

'_Hashirama, Izuna, everyone…it's done…it's over. The world finally has peace. Now, let's see what had Zetsu so agitated.'_

Descending back to the ground, Madara found his Will calmly waiting for him, a shapeless blob of black with a couple of yellow balls where his eyes might be, Obito having been disposed of via the infinite dream.

"Zetsu."

"Lord Madara. It brings me great pleasure to see you alive and well again."

"Yes, I am happy to see you again, as well. Now, not that I am complaining, given our success, but what had you in such a rush?"

"Shin'en Yūrei," Zetsu said gravely in that rough, gravelly voice of his.

Madara arched a brow. "Abyss Ghost?"

Zetsu proceeded to give the five-minute version of the demigod, leaving Madara deeply impressed.

"Interesting. I would've very much liked to fight such a man."

"It would've been a very tough fight. I might even go so far as to say you would've lost."

"Oh, really? Even in this form?" Madara struck a bit of a pose, a confident smirk on his face.

"Yes, even in that form. However, I know someone that could certainly defeat Shin'en Yūrei."

Madara tilted his head. "If he's as powerful as you claim, and you think that _I_ couldn't beat him, even as the Ten-Tails Jinchuuriki, then who are so certain of?"

"Mother."

"Moth-_grk_!"

The Second Six Paths looked down at his chest to see a black shape puncturing through.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

If Zetsu actually had organs, he might've experienced a sexual climax as everything was _finally _coming together after almost a whole millennia of planning. So many variables, so much adjusting and compensation, so much nudging and moving, so many close calls, so many lies, so much effort and patience and split hairs and panic…but it was all over.

Massive plumes of chakra erupted from the ground, being drawn from literally all over the world, from literally everyone _in_ the world, everyone bound to the Divine Tree, anyway, which was everyone, including all of the animals in all the lands. The icing on the cake was that there was even a bit of Shin'en's chakra in this humongous mix, which was akin to a lake of Everclear in this ocean of beer.

With all this chakra surging into his body uncontrollably, Madara fattened and inflated in a horribly grotesque and humiliating manner, eventually transforming into a humongous blob.

And then the blob was simply gone, and in its place was _her_.

Finally, after a thousand years had passed, Kaguya Otsustuki was reborn, the chakra of the Ten-Tails, the chakra of the world, and just a little bit of Shin'en's chakra, all comfortably circulating through her body.

"Mother," Zetsu cooed, a huge, toothy grin on what could be considered his face.

"My darling," Kaguya cooed right back, stroking her child's head in the most loving of manners.

It was rather morbid. For all of his cunning, that deep, rough voice of his, all of the turmoil he had caused in the world, all of the wars he had started, all of the blood that had been shed thanks to his efforts—hell, the very state of the world itself could be safely laid at Zetsu's feet. For all of Zetsu's _evil_…he was just a pathetic _momma's boy_.

Zetsu slinked up into the confines of Kaguya's massive sleeve, and as she began to simply glide along the earth, her massive locks of hair trailing several dozen feet behind her, he began to regal his mother with a millennium's worth of stories. Kaguya, with her otherworldly powers, was not only able to listen with rapt attention to her child's tales, hanging on to every precious word, but she was also able to reminisce.

Zetsu talking to her in such an excited way reminded her so strongly of Hagoromo and Hamura when they were little, scampering around and exploring every little nook and cranny of their Momma's world.

Thinking of her first two sons got Kaguya thinking about their father.

Eating the chakra fruit of the Divine Tree brought about attention Kaguya hadn't known existed, since she was a being not of this world, and therefore not privy to its gods. After bringing peace through force, unleashing the elements and demonstrating her mastery of life and death, causing her to be revered as a goddess in some circles, a demon in others, and in yet other circles, as a demon goddess. It didn't take long until an actual god showed up, lovestruck by her beauty, power, and tenaciousness.

Izanagi, the father of the gods.

Through her, the first two demigods were born, their twin sons, Hagoromo and Hamura.

Amazingly enough, Kaguya didn't have to start beating away other gods with a stick, nor did she have to worry about a vengeful Izanami coming up from Yomi to get her or the children. However, Izanagi did retreat back into heaven, and Kaguya hadn't heard from him since. Not that she really cared; he might have been in love with her, but she had only allowed him to sleep with her out of the prospect of children.

And then those little snots had betrayed her after all she did for them, feeding them, clothing them, cleaning them, wiping their own filth from their butts, wiping the drool from their chins, washing their laundry after they decided to go traipsing through the mud, they _still_ had the balls to take up arms against her after they learned about how she brought about endless peace, and the scary part was that they won the battle, even after she merged with the Divine Tree and became the Ten-Tails.

Perhaps what really cost her the battle was that, despite how much she had hated her sons in those days, she was still their mother and couldn't truly bring herself to hurt them.

Oh well.

They were both dead and she was alive again, and the world, her precious nursery, and all of her little ones that resided here, was finally at peace.

Truthfully, there wasn't much for Kaguya to do. Everyone in the world was dreaming, and she had been in the moon, watching the proceedings from her prison. She knew the locations and names of everything that had transpired since her Sealing. She knew her nursery was round and mostly water, with all of the land being concentrated in this one humongous area. There really wasn't anything to explore.

Before the rabbit goddess knew it, she was in the ruins of the contemptuous Hidden Leaf. She didn't like this place, and it was a toss up whether she dislike the Leaf, the Mist, or the Cloud more for what they had done to her most precious little one—other than her Zetsu. Kaguya looked up at the oddly shaped cocoon wrapped snuggly in the branches of the Divine Tree, and she began to walk to it.

Not walk as in across the ground with the intention of floating up, but walk as in using her godly chakra and her godly control over it to bring together the air particles into enough of a solid base in the same respect as the water-walking technique.

Reaching her destination, Kaguya gently reached out and reverently stroked her hand across the dreaming Shin'en's head. She had been watching him for years; ever since Susano'o had brought her little boy to the Land of Water, she had followed this new demigod. She had watched him crawling across the ground, squirm and giggle on the changing table, and learn how to use the toilet.

Kaguya had seen everything that had happened in her precious baby's life, and her heart had broken for him many times.

But now it was alright; now he was at peace…

And then there was light so luminous that the rabbit goddess' retinas were fried. There was heat so intense that her hair and clothes were burned straight from her body, and her skin crackled and melted. There was sound so voluminous that her eardrums exploded. There was force so great in magnitude that her skeleton fractured, and she was sent away, feeling as if she were being squeezed through a hole the size of a finger.

Unbearably long seconds passed, so much force being exerted on her body that she couldn't reorient or call upon her powers. Then it was all over, and it was very, very cold. Her body started to mend, her bones mending, her skin repairing, her eyes and ears healing, and her clothes and hair growing back. It was dark where she was, with thousands of twinkling little lights all over the place.

Kaguya realized she was in Space.

She realized that whatever had happened down there, that explosion, had been so powerful as to knock her clean from the planet's surface all the way out beyond the exosphere, causing such extensive damage to her that she was still regenerating herself. The fact that so much damage had been done to her in the first place, with all of her incredible power providing incredible protection—i.e. the fact that she was in the vacuum and wasn't being torn apart—was testament to the power of whatever had hit her.

What _had_ hit her?

Kaguya had to flip around a few times to get her bearings, a glowing green something periodically entering and leaving her vision as she tried to find the Earth. A fear grew in her that she had been knocked so far out into Space that she _couldn't _see the Earth, but that fear turned into terror when she realized what the glowing green something was. Kaguya righted herself in the void, and her jaw fell open and her eyes widened.

Her nursery, her precious, precious nursery was _on fire_

Raging, emerald _fire_.

The whole Pangaeic landmass was ablaze.

Kaguya attuned herself, opening up her senses, and was startled to find that the fire had a chakra signature at its epicenter, the same spot that she had been blasted from. Her Little Abyss was going nuts and had effectively killed everyone on the planet, the fire spreading across the branches and roots of the Divine Tree that had its grasp on everyone everywhere, meaning that he had killed his remaining two family, Killer Bee and Yugito, and he had most certainly killed his wife as she had been in his arms, and with her, their unborn children.

Heartbreaking and tragic as that was, Kaguya found herself far more concerned with her nursery and the fact that it was being rapidly destroyed by a brat with abandonment issues.

She needed to put a stop to this—actually, you know what? Fuck it.

Kaguya could find another nursery. She could make one, actually, since she had the power of Rinnegan in her forehead, granting her the ability to make something out of nothing. She didn't even _need_ to make a new planet, really, since there were so many others in this Solar System that she could simply terraform. However, it was probably best that she _leave_ this particular system and made way for somewhere else in the galaxy.

Preferably on the other side, far, far away from the temper tantrum that so very close in universal distance.

Kaguya turned away from Earth, and was just about to execute the Amenotejikara to cross through space-time to bypass the vast distances of Space when she was suddenly racked with a pain similar to birth contractions. Despite her tolerance to pain in this incredible new body that was bolstered by the power of Shin'en, the Ten-Tails, Izanagi's seed, and her own power that stemmed from eating the Chakra Fruit directly, Kaguya still let out a groan.

_No…_

She heard the simple word somewhere in the very back of her head, and she knew the voice.

_No._

This time it was louder, stronger, and firmer. Kaguya was left reeling at how this was even possible.

_No!_

The rabbit goddess let out a strangled syllable as she began to bloat.

_I did __not__ watch my family die, lose my best friend, bury my own brother, bring about war and bloodshed in the name of peace, and finally accomplish that life mission just to have it all ripped away from me by a coward with enough hair to blanket a mammoth! _

Kaguya screamed, but here in Space, no one could hear her. Her body expanded in a horribly grotesque fashion, and the burning, fiery, hate-filled, self-righteous will of her current adversary completely and totally incinerated her own, and Zetsu was subject to this fate but a mere instant later.

And then Kaguya was gone, her will and consciousness destroyed by that of Madara Uchiha.

He was back and looking not all that different. His skin was its healthy tan, his hair long and spikey as it had been, but now it was white as snow. On his body was his favored clothing, but instead of his long, split mantle, pants, and gloves being a dark purple, they were all a deep black, and his formerly crimson armor was now just as white as his hair. Behind him floated ten black orbs, knowledge seeping into his brain as to what they were and how to use them.

In the center of Madara's forehead was a wide-open, red-glowing Rinne-Sharingan, and in his eye sockets were his own eyes, glowing red with the pattern of his Eternal Mangekyou.

This new body of his was packed with power, more than he ever had, and probably more than he was ever going to have again. The power of his Uchiha bloodline, the power of the Ten-Tails, the wench herself, the chakra of all the people and animals of the Earth, the power of a literal god, and the power of a demigod. To put it in slang terms, Madara was _packin'_.

And his world of peace was damned.

All of his efforts, all of his sacrifices and those of others, the sins he had committed for this ultimate, final end…all for nothing.

The people he loved dearly, the people that with his power he had a responsibility to look after and love and protect, were all ashes now thanks to this temperamental brat with abandonment issues. The world that he cared about and had devoted his life saving was going up in flames.

Madara's face contorted into one of absolute fury and loathing. He had a demigod to kill.

He shot forward, going so fast that he could've beat Minato to anyone of the man's teleportation markers. He entered the atmosphere and became wreathed in fire, but the wind and the air served to provide to resistance to the crusading Uchiha as he flew hard and determined into the heart of the emerald inferno. When he saw Shin'en through the flames, and Shin'en looked back at him with a demonic, broken expression, Madara began to have doubts about his chosen course of action.

Those doubts were solidified when a fist to the face sent him back out past orbit, and through something big and hard. When Madara righted himself, he realized that he had just been sent from the planet's surface, into Space, _through the Moon_—breaking it nearly in _half_—and had kept going just a bit further past.

A bit of lunar debris floated past the last Uchiha, and where he idly noted that despite taking such a powerful fist, his nose was only slightly inflamed, but he was in deep, deep shit.

This sentiment was proven when there was a flash of green light from Earth, and then Shin'en was right in front of Madara.

The demigod was crying.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

He knew this place.

A cliff with a large oak tree providing shade, the ocean softly washing over the rocks below, the salty smell in the air. A quaint wooden cross was stabbed into the ground there before the edge, and before the cross was a stone, a bouquet of roses upon it. The stone's surface read:

_In memory of friends _

_Asteria Jackson_

_Annabeth Chase_

Shin'en's legs wobbled and he fell to his knees. A large hand gently settled on his shoulder, and he looked up into the eyes of Killer Bee, the man smiling.

"See ya' round, kiddo."

Shin'en made to grab him, but he was already gone.

A pair of arms settled around him from behind, and soft, motherly lips touched his cheek.

"I've always loved you as my son, and I always will."

A pained whimper left him, and his arms came to grip Yugito's, but she too had move on.

He turned around to find her, but all he saw was Naruko, gazing sadly down at the grave marker for Asteria and Annabeth. Naruko looked at up from there and to Shin'en.

"We'll see each other again, Percy….In another place…in another time."

And before he could reach her, she was gone too.

Everything went up in fire after that.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The emotional trauma of what he had done in the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the trauma of what he had just seen and what it meant culminated in one final, devastating Awakening.

Emerald chakra bearing the consistency of an inferno exploded to life around Shin'en. In his arms, his pregnant wife was destroyed by his own power—_his own children_. The branches of the Divine Tree rapidly moved to rewrap him, but the power was too much, and they were burned away—the _whole tree_ was burned away, and everyone in its branches was burned away.

Yugito and Bee.

The emotional shock of these events triggered a transformation with the same principle as the awakening of the Mangekyou Sharingan.

Hagoromo and Hamura, born directly of Izanagi, were much closer to the acquisition of this latent power in them, and they inherited it after they learned just how much a tyrant their beloved mother was. The shock of the betrayal, on top of so many kind and loving memories, was enough to push the brothers into activating the power that Shin'en had been working up to since he was six. At eighteen, it was finally his, twelve years later.

Six-Paths Sage Mode.

A divine state that could be granted to others by those had achieved it, such as Hagoromo with Naruto, but to achieve, one had to be of Shinto divinity. As Hagoromo and Hamura were as divine as you could get without actually being a god, they both had this power, and were able to get to it without as much strife as Shin'en due to them being direct children of Izanagi. The reason it took Shin'en over a decade and so much suffering to achieve this great power was because he was effectively only _adopted_ into the pantheon.

Susano'o was his foster father, and the chakra coils that ran inside him were created by the god, and it was the fact that he had pulled some of the god's own chakra out of his body, as a newborn, and into his own that allowed him to qualify, if only in part, as a member of the Shinto pantheon, and as a Shinto demigod.

To strictly speak, Shin'en was a Shinto legacy, but these technicalities didn't really matter, did they?

As this newly awakened divine state rolled through him, he underwent a physical transformation.

Shin'en's eyes became typical of his Demigod Mode, with his pupils shifting into the shape of the Omega. His hair stood straight up in a crown of thorns. Twin bulges formed along his hairline, and horns sprouted. Another bulge grew in the center of his forehead, blood seeping through the skin before it split open vertically to reveal a green Rinne-Sharingan, the pupil dilated and the tomoe spinning wildly. On Shin'en's right cheek appeared a black tattoo of the lowercase Greek character Alpha, and on his left appeared the character Omega, symbols of his connection to natural energy and his heritage.

His clothes changed, becoming charged with chakra that altered the appearance. His blue pants turned black and became baggy like hakama pants, and were frayed at the bottom. His sandals turned black. The Akatsuki cloak changed the most; it became completely black, no more red clouds and no red interior. The sleeves shortened to the wrists and became tighter, almost form-fitting. The collar also shorted, going from above the lips to around the Adam's apple, turning stiff and tight. The whole upper half of the cloak now fit like a military uniform—tight and crisp. The bottom changed as well, no longer fitting around the whole body. Instead it was trimmed at the waist, cut into three distinct coattails, two at the sides and one at the back, that went down to his ankles.

Glowing emerald green magatama appeared across each of Shin'en's collarbones, and the same phenomena happened across his back. In between his shoulder blades was a glowing emerald Rinnegan symbol, and below that were nine magatama arranged in a square, also glowing with the same dark green hue.

This all sounded cool, of course, new powers, new appearance, kind of like the Power Rangers, but what was happening was anything _but_ cool.

Shin'en was screaming and sobbing in a way that only a baby could manage. So much chakra had erupted out of him, bringing with it so much heat and intensity that he had incinerated the whole Divine Tree and its continent-spanning root system, effectively setting the world on fire and killing literally _everyone_ on the planet…_again_. The emotional typhoon he was experiencing that stemmed from killing Yūrei, his own mother, followed immediately by killing Annabeth, Persephone—_again_, having killed another incarnation of her during the Titan War—and then Naruko, followed immediately by killing Naruko, Yugito, and Bee.

Also Ei and Cee, to a lesser extent, but their deaths added lighter fluid to a volcanic eruption.

Speaking of volcanic eruptions, all that emotional stuff Shin'en was experiencing, beyond just having lit the planet on fire, was causing him to rip the planet apart.

The supercontinent was splitting all over, massive lakes of lava pouring up from the mantle due to the breaking crust. The weather was out of control, the whole planet covered in a typhoon with heavy, slanted rain coming down so hard that it was impossible to see in the places that weren't burning away in emerald fire. Tornadoes and hurricanes swept the oceans on the other side of the planet, and on the side Shin'en was on, fiery twisters laid further waste to the world.

Not to mention the Dimensional Quake.

Once again, the Shinto gods found their extradimensional home being shaken to its foundations, and the Multiverse was being ravaged, with all the various Earths crashing and smacking into each other by the waves of power Shin'en was releasing. The Dimensional Hall was thrown yet again into chaos, doors getting blasted off their hinges left and right, lightning and fire wreaking havoc everywhere.

As for Shin'en himself…

There weren't words invented yet that accurately described how he was feeling, and so, in the energy of the English language words shall be made, right here and now.

He was feeling gertury, an emotion beyond the likes of anger and fury.

He was feeling sestorrow, an emotion beyond the likes of sadness, despair, and sorrow.

Those were the biggest ones, on top of feeling, empty, broken, and hollow. All of this was just going everywhere, being directed at everything, no mercy, no target. So, when Madara came rocketing into the scene at close to Mach 30, Shin'en finally had something to aim it all at. With a single strike to the face, the last Uchiha—effectively the last person on this planet was sent rocketing even faster away than he came in, out past Earth's orbit, and through the Moon, splintering the celestial body.

A blink later and Shin'en was in space, bringing with him the divine power of Demigod Mode, the further divine power of Six-Paths Sage Mode, the unbridled physical power of the Eight Inner Gates Formation—all eight Gates opened—and as pathetic an additive as it was in retrospect, thought the chakra fueling it did indeed make it a worthwhile additive, the Lightning Armor.

Bearing down on Madara at speeds greater than light and with power in the realm of the very primeval gods themselves was Perseus "Shin'en Yūrei" Jackson, a fully realized Shinto demigod, locked in an emotional state that was mirrored by no one across all of fiction, in a state of power so great that its name was expressed only as thus:

Omega Mode.

And for all the new power that Madara now had, he was like the Sun, humongous, bright, and powerful, but Shin'en was like a rampaging black hole.

The last Uchiha was instantly snuffed out.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Elsewhere_

"_This is all your fault!"_ Izanagi screeched at Susano'o amidst the destruction of their palace due to Shin'en's now-unimaginable power.

"_MINE!?_" the storm god screamed back, tears streaming down his face. "_I _was going to drop him into the Leaf just in time for Kurama's Sealing! Perseus was meant to grow up as the Jinchuuriki brother of Naruko, adopted into the Namikaze house, surrounded by friends and family! _You_ had me drop him at the orphanage, hoping he would _die_! _You_ are to cause for all of this!"

And then it all stopped.

The shaking, the crumbling, the fires, the floods, the rain, the hail, the wind—all of it. Deathly calm settled over the Shinto house. In the corner, Hagoromo solemnly closed his eyes.

_You don't…__**saaaaaaaaaay**_

The disembodied voice rolled over the land, starting off in a quiet whisper and then turning into a deafening boom that steadily faded back into a whisper.

Swallowing hard, Izanagi grabbed his sword, the Ame-no-Ohabari, the weapon he had used to kill his own infant son, Kagutsuchi, after the newborn fire god burned Izanami to death during the birthing, and his jeweled staff/spear, his naginata, the Ame-no-Nuhoko, the weapon he had used to form the islands out of the sea.

There was a massive surge in the throne room, and Shin'en was there, still in his newfound state of power, the head of Madara Uchiha in his hand. He was still very, very gertury and sestorrow, but right now it all being contained in a little personal bubble, if only barely, so that these few words could be shared.

"You do not know whom you are trying, _boy_," Izanagi threatened.

"I am the master of this house—the god of what is considered to be _anime_…and so much more. I am Alucard, Naruto, Goku, Meruem, Saitama, Kenshiro, Ichigo, Luffy, Kaneki, Eren Yaeger, Guts, All Might, Edward Elric, Natsu, Inuyasha, Yusuke, Kurosensei, Meliodas, Arceus, Akira, Super Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Seiya, and many more. I have all of their powers, but on the scale as _the_ divine being. You stand no chance, no matter what power you awaken, or how much of a tantrum you throw."

"Tantrum."

"Yes, _tan-_"

And for all of that boasting of his powers, Izanagi was still too slow to block, dodge, or counter the fist that came across his jaw, and for all of that boasting of his powers, Izanagi's durability did nothing to stop the broken teeth that flew from his mouth, or save his jaw from being broken in such a way that it dangled grotesquely, the right side only hanging on to his face by a strip of skin and muscle. The blow delivered so much force to the god that he instantly achieved a speed twenty time greater than sound, but he moved no further than two feet from where he stood before another fist collided with his stomach with the same energy as the first.

Once again, Izanagi moved no more than so many inches at such incredible speeds before he was subject to more damage. A big fistful of his hair was grabbed, and his face brought forward to kiss an unforgiving knee that made him look worse than Izanami had looked when he tried to extract her from Yomi. With that grip still on his head, the god felt another about his leg as he was lifted and then forcefully brought down on a different knee this time, and he felt his spine turn to dust.

For the final blow, Shin'en brought Izanagi up, and impaled the god upon one of his new horns.

The father of the sun, moon, and storms gurgled and stilled, his body fading away as his spirit went to Yomi, where Izanami was waiting with a whole host of vengeful spirits.

Susano'o only watched and stood by silently as his father was beaten and subsequently killed. Shin'en made it look easy, but that was because everything that the boy had had gone into those five blows. No energy was wasted, and no amount of focus was elsewhere. A stampede of elephants could've gone thundering ten feet behind the son of Poseidon, and he wouldn't have known. Any energy that would've been expended in crying, screaming, in a halo of violent power, or in causing catastrophic weather was instead contained and released squarely upon Izanagi.

All of the energy that was burned through in the Dimensional Quake, and the Planetary Quake, was instead reigned in and given one single direction.

That was why it had appeared so easy—_all_ of Shin'en's power, focus, and emotion had been directed at Izanagi and nowhere else.

And now it was over.

All of it was over.

Naruko and the unborn twins were gone, as were Yugito and Bee, the Akatsuki, and literally everyone else. The planet was holding together, but it was a fiery hell pit right now, volcanoes and storms ravaging the surface and the landmass broke apart, moved, reformed, and repeated. The Moon was still broken, Toneri having died when Madara had been sent crashing through the celestial body.

Jutsu to bring back the dead, like the Reanimation and the Rinne-Rebirth, sounded great on paper, and actually would've worked, but to use the Reanimation, the soul you were attempting to bind had to reside in the afterlife locale of the "Pure Land."

Naruko, Yugito, and Bee were not in the Pure Land; they were _gone_.

Shin'en had basically destroyed the dimension, and by proxy, the branch of the Pure Land that was tied to it. This was the kind of specifics that only the likes of a Shinto god or an ascended entity could know. Susano'o fit the god criteria, and Shin'en had ascended. With the Pure Land gone, there was no place for the good souls to go, and since there was no Pure Land, there was also no branch of Yomi for the bad souls either. With no place for good or bad, all were simply deleted and granted true, eternal peace.

At least, that was what the Kotoamatsukami had decreed when things such as souls and afterlives were created by them….

Susano'o gently stepped up to his adopted son, and placed an even gentler hand on his shoulder. Shin'en slightly turned his head, just enough to where his eye was visible, the last few tears he had left steadily dripping down his cheek. Susano'o brought the boy into his embrace, and Shin'en did not fight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_Manhattan_

"All comfortable for the night, Ms. Jackson?"

"Oh, yes. Thank you, Hannah."

The nurse, Hannah, put on a strained smile, her eyes haunted.

"If there's anything you want to tell me, tonight is your last chance to say so."

"What do you mean?" Hannah asked, her brow furrowing.

Her answer was a small, sideways grin. "Don't worry about it. Tell me, what's on your mind?"

Hannah remained silent and still, then her eyes darted around, looking for any obvious listening device, and after determining that she was safe enough, sat in the wheeled chai that was customary to this room in the hospital/nursing home/prison/laboratory.

"It never sat well with me, what happened to you and the others, what's been done. God _never _wanted this, regardless of what President Nero claimed, and _nothing _that happened in the world was your fault, or any of the others."

A light chuckle. "As debatable as that is," just what _that_ was supposed to be referring to was left to interpretation, "you have a good heart, Hannah. Don't worry about Nero or any of the others. They're all going to be taken care of tonight. I would make my peace with things while I still could, if I were you."

Hannah smiled sadly. "Ms. Jackson…you said that last night…and the night before…and every night now for the past thirty years."

"I have? Oh, well, then I guess I've been covering my bases just in case that one of those nights was _the_ night."

"Of course, ma'am. Do you need anything else before I go home for the night?"

"Nope, I'm all good. Clean diaper, clean sheets, clean clothes, great food, and a nice, comfy bed, all thanks to you." The happy grin turned just a little sad for Hannah's sake. "Take my word tonight, sweetheart. Make sure you have no unfinished business. This night and never again."

"You've been saying that…" Hannah trailed off. "Goodnight, Ms. Jackson."

"Goodnight, Hannah. Turn the light off please, but leave my nightlight on. He likes his dramatic entrances."

"Of course, ma'am. I'll see you in the morning."

A sad smile. "No, you won't."

Hannah's parting smile was strained, but she did as asked, turned on the nightlight and turned off the main light, letting the bedroom soak in a dim glow that left dark shadows upon the corners. The door, a big, heavy, iron thing with only a small window, mesh wiring making it unbreakable, was shut and locked from the outside.

Fifteen ticks of the clock went by, and then she said, "Hey, Percy."

A pair of red lights flashed in the darkest corner of the room, and indeed, Percy came from the shadows. His hair was cut shorter than what it had been, but still pushed back over his scalp in many needle-like clumps. The cloak had also changed, no longer with a high collar, long, baggy sleeves, and a tube-like bottom. Now the ensemble fit like a military uniform, with the collar being lower around throat, and tighter. The sleeves were shorter, coming to the wrists, and were also tighter about the arms. The whole upper body was the same, fitting closer to the skin. The bottom of the cloak was cut differently, no longer wrapping around, but was now cut to leave the legs completely open at the front, and there were three distinct tails, two at the sides and one at the back, that went down to mid-calf.

It still had the red interior, and there was a single red cloud on the front, and one on the back.

Percy's pants were now black instead of blue, and the white legwarmers were red, and his sandals were black as well.

"It's been…longer than what I thought it has been, Persephone."

Percy's big sister smiled. "Yeah, it has been."

"You got old."

"I'm 95, you butthole."

"You don't look a day over 70."

"Awe, aren't you sweet?" Persephone smiled, her hair now short, white, and devoid of its once-silky texture. Her skin was pale and wrinkled, her body frail and weak, bearing many faint scars along her exposed arms, and many more under her gown. "Don't just stand there; come, sit next to me so we can catch up."

Percy moved forward and took a seat in the chair that the nurse had just occupied. Persephone held up her hand, and he took it firmly in his own.

"You're so handsome," Persephone said, her smile brighter than the sun, her eyes sparkling like stars. "Mom would be so proud of you."

"I destroyed my planet, killed my wife and our unborn children, and killed everyone else."

"But you're _here_. You pulled yourself together enough to come see me one last time."

Percy's lower lip trembled for a second.

"This _is _the last time. I'm tired Percy, and I've held on for the past seventy-five years for this day, so I could see my beloved baby brother one last time."

"But you _can't_ go yet," Percy protested quietly. "I promised you that we'd spend at least a whole year together."

"Oh, Percy," Persephone smiled. "I release you of that promise."

Percy let out a shuddering breath, his eyes misting, but no tears fell. He didn't think he had any tears left.

"I'm gonna go now, Percy. Annabeth's been waiting on me for seventy-three years, and so has our little Estelle—we adopted her after Mom and Paul passed. That kiddo gets _so_ cranky waiting on me to get back from work. I'll see you tomorrow, Percy. I love you."

Just before her eyes shut, Percy caught her in a genjutsu, and in that tenth of a second of eye contact, Persephone got to live that promised year, full of fun and adventure, with her, Annabeth, and Percy as spry teenagers together.

"Best. Year. Ever."

With that, Persephone's eyes shut for good, her withered hand slipping out of Percy's numb one to gently rest on the bed. Instead of the monitors going haywire with their long, unending shriek, they instead shut off completely.

Persephone's body faded away, her blankets and clothes rustling as they fell upon empty space.

Percy just sat there alone in the dimness, staring at where his withered, elderly, beaten, abused, and beloved big sister had been.

What followed should've been a somber, sacred moment. A time of silence and peace as he coped with the fact that now, finally, truly, everyone Percy had ever known and loved was _dead_. This was supposed to be a quiet moment as he mourned by his lonesome, but no. With Persephone's body gone, the monitors that were attached to her body no longer had anything to read, and so the machines thought that Persephone had flatlined.

The silence that should've been was instead replaced by a loud, nonstop scream.

It was but a duo of seconds later that the staff came rushing in with equipment, and that was the final straw for Shin'en.

His third eye opened and glowed as he wordlessly executed the anti-gravity jutsu that was the Almighty Push, releasing an invisible sphere of outward force with himself as the epicenter that easily pushed apart the asylum in the blink of an eye, and the rest of Manhattan but a few seconds later. Millions died without a clue as to what had happened, and trillions in property damage was caused as the mighty skyscrapers of Long Island were instantly and easily toppled.

In less than thirty seconds, the waters of the rivers and the bay were cascading in to fill up the massive, perfect half-sphere where civilization used to be, and a new lake was formed that day.

Did Shin'en stop to admire his handiwork, or pause for any kind of reflection? No.

He was already storming up to Nero in the last god-emperor's palace, completely bypassing all the magical protections thanks to the teleportation powers of the Rinne-Sharingan.

It was a truly despicable sight that Shin'en happened upon, Nero relaxing in a recliner, receiving fellatio from a boy that wasn't any older than ten, while a girl no older than fourteen stood next to Nero, grinding herself back and forth on the scum's outstretched hand while vaguely dressed as a dog—a collar and leash around her throat, a headband with large, floppy dog ears on her crown, oversized paw-like mittens on her hands, similar items on her feet, and a dog tail buttplug stretching her, the tail itself flopping about the backs of her legs and she was made to grind back and forth.

The reason for the recliner was so that Nero could watch a girl about six years old have her colon torn apart by a grown, hairy man. A gag was in the child's mouth, making her shrieks come out as muffled gurgles.

All of these people died as painless a death as you could when your heart suddenly explodes in your chest.

Nero barely had time to gasp before Shin'en stormed past, his hand coming down to grip a fistful of reddish hair. Nero squealed when he was just so easily yanked out of his comfy chair, slobber still on his erect member, his finger still slick with juices. His mind latched onto insanity as he realized who was dragging him.

Nero cackled madly, eyes unfocused, psyche splintered just by the mere _sight _of Shin'en Yūrei, but knowing that he was at the monster's mercy, knowing all that he had done to the monster's sister, knowing all that the monster had done already—knowing these things completely shredded Nero's sanity, and he just laughed and laughed and laughed.

Even when the ground fell away to reveal a place of fire and suffering, the sound of millions of damned souls, the smell of sulfur and brimstone, all rising from below, Nero still just laughed, foam at the corners of his mouth, his eyes rolling into the back of his head. Even when the Serpent, its body made of flame rose from this place of evil, Nero continued chortling.

He continued making incoherent sounds even as Shin'en tossed him into the air, even as the Serpent had him in his jaws, even as he was taken down, down, down….

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Did Shin'en find it strange or odd how easy it was to call up the Devil to come and take Nero, body and soul? Only at the back of his mind.

What good was _killing_ Nero going to do? His spirit would just go to Tartarus, if not some other magically protected and set-up place, where he would reform and come back, and nothing would be different. Even going to Tartarus presented a problem, because it was right next door to the Underworld, the last mythological sanctum outside of Hotel Valhalla and select parts of the Duat. Being that close to Elysium would put Persephone's finally at-peace soul in terrible danger.

Torture didn't seem right either, because Shin'en couldn't think of anything painful enough to fit Nero's atrocities, if the god-emperor could even feel pain anymore. Even if he had, he didn't think he could put his heart into it enough to make it hurt.

Shin'en felt empty and hollow, with nothing left inside of him besides haunted memories.

As he stood at the top of the world, standing on the last few particles of air at the outermost reaches of the atmosphere, staring down at the dark side of the planet, the millions of dazzling lights of the cities below, Shin'en contemplated destroying this world, but he decided against it. Logic weighed in, telling him that if he destroyed the planet, wiped out the population like Asteria had at the end of her main story, then, just like in her world, the gods and all of their places would fade away with no left to believe or hear their stories and at least _know_ about them.

The Underworld would fade away, and all of the good souls therein would be released to a place that Shin'en would never be allowed to go, not with how black his heart was.

Shin'en stared at the world he and his siter had born into. He had been taken from this world, from her, and damned to this life of constant, endless suffering, suffering that his sister had surpassed in her decades as Nero's prize slave. Shin'en wondered what to do with himself.

Did he go back down there and become the messiah, undoing Nero's evil to bring about a new, pure, golden age? Free the gods and restore their thrones? No. What was the point of sharing this paradise if his sister wasn't here to enjoy it with him? She was in paradise already, and everything she had gone through, Shin'en bring himself to be selfish enough to bring her back to life.

Her rest was earned and would be enjoyed until the Lord of Hosts decided it was time.

Shin'en recalled the Infinite Tsukuyomi, and how instead of it being a dream it was instead a portal for your consciousness to an alternate dimension, one that best fit whatever your dream was. That was a real, other place he had been to, a real, other him's body he had occupied and forced to do those horrible things. He could only imagine what was happening in that world, the sadness, the despair, the crying….Then again, maybe none. Maybe the unique and ultra-special circumstances allowed the gods enough leeway to bring everyone back to life like nothing had happened, and they got their happily ever after.

Shin'en decided to roll with that idea.

His thought then drifted to his sixteenth birthday, the day the Second Titan War came to an end, and he had been forced to fight the incarnation of his sister that had been taken from her world to live his life. He had killed that Persephone, after she had been right in the middle of the promised year with her little brother. That was two years ago now, yes, but time didn't move linearly through all the dimensions. The Percy of that world was probably still in bed, and would wake up wondering where his Persephone was at, unaware that she had been stolen away in the middle of the night and then murdered.

Shin'en owed it to his other self to give closure, and at least say sorry.

But not right now—not on this day.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_The Original Xenophobic Dimension_

When he had left this place, the whole planet had been a volcanic hellscape. He had used Izanagi on a world-wide scale to temporarily make it a green and lush paradise as he held a one-man funeral for Asteria and Annabeth, right before he destroyed the traitorous Ryuk. Keeping up with the idea of non-linear time, it seemed that a number of years had passed since he was last here, in the physical sense.

There was natural green everywhere, the whole planet having undergone a similar metamorphosis as the area around Mount St. Helens, in which it was thought that millions of years would have to pass before life returned, following the eruption in 1980, but it had actually only taken hours in some places, and not even a decade in others for green to reappear.

Did Shin'en actually care? Not really.

As he sat against the oak tree, a cigarette slowly burning away in the corner of his mouth, he didn't care much for anything. He was burned out on caring, having cared so much after breaking the Infinite Tsukuyomi that he had barely shed a single tear after his sister passed away before him.

The wooden cross was still there, miraculously unwarped and unchanged in any way. The stone before it was altered. It now read:

_In Memory of Loved Ones_

_Persephone Jackson_

_Naruko Jackson_

_Asteria Jackson_

_Annabeth Chase_

_Sukina Y__ū__rei_

_Arashi Y__ū__rei_

_Y__ū__waku Y__ū__rei_

_Bullock Y__ū__rei_

_Yugito Nii_

_Kill Bee_

_Ei_

_Darui_

_Cee_

_The Twins_

_Sally Jackson_

And all the names of the orphans he had grown up with, and the matron, finished off the list.

Shin'en just sat there, smoking one cigarette after the other, his eyes completely and totally unblinking, body never moving, metabolism slowing to a crawl so that there was no worry about reliving himself, or being hungry or thirsty. Even if such needs arose, Shin'en was certainly sure he wouldn't have acted to eat or drink, and he was honestly on the fence about whether he'd put forth the effort to drop his pants to avoid shaming himself like a small child.

He was _that _broken on the inside.

He kept telling himself that Persephone had been hurt in more ways than he had been, the trauma involved in the split personalities included, and so he had no room or right to be brooding like he was. He kept telling himself that his suffering was just another story in an ever-expanding book, and that he was not special, and the world would not stop for him. He kept reminding himself of the times he had said such to others, the twins and the Assassin being chief in his memory, and that it was hypocritical of him to be acting this way.

Shin'en didn't care.

He wasn't fully human anymore, not that he ever had been in the first place, but there was just enough humanity left inside to where he had dragged himself to this hole, and couldn't yet muster the will to climb back out.

It was one thing to find Yūrei's head impaled on pikes in public, it was another to learn that he had had sold them, it was still another thing to learn that he had sold them out because he was betrayed by the Third Raikage. But it was an otherworldly thing to have killed Yūrei with his own sword, to have killed his own sister, killed Annabeth, and to have killed his own pregnant wife, Naruko, only to turn right back around and _really _kill Naruko, still pregnant, on top of Yugito and Bee, and then come home to find your sister an elderly mess that soon passed away after a lifetime of suffering.

Shin'en didn't think he'd ever be able to pull himself out of this, and he was just fine with sitting here and slowly wasting away, even if it took a hundred centuries.

Luckily, there were powers that weren't about to let that happen.

Shin'en heard a pair of footsteps behind him, both of them coming closer. On his right, the Leviathan gathered his cape beneath him as he sat down; on the left, Asteria sank to the ground, slipping her hand into Shin'en's.

"Why are you two here?"

"Why would we not?" the Leviathan countered casually.

_You were there for us when our stories ended, and now we're here for you_, Asteria thought at the boys.

Shin'en made a noncommitted grunt.

"You know that at the end of three days, I'm going to kick your ass, right?"

Another grunt.

_I'll destroy your little monument here._

A loud crack filled the air as Shin'en suddenly gripped Asteria's hand so tight that her incredibly strong bones all snapped.

"Don't even _think_ about it."

But Asteria's eyes slid over to meet his own as she turned her head, an evil little smile slowly spreading across her face, revealing the black gums and the pearly, translucent teeth. A vision pushed into Shin'en's mind, and he saw Asteria pouring her acidic blood all over his sacred monument, and it washed away, a cloud of gas rising with a sizzling hiss.

He let out a shout and made to crush Asteria's throat with his hands, but as he lunged at her, she threw herself forward, wrapping her arms and tail tightly around her brother.

Shin'en froze, his body going rigid. Then, slowly, the look of anger on his face melted away as his lip curled and his eyes shut. His outstretched arms came to close around Asteria, hugging her to him. A dam broke; what he had taken for supreme apathy and an uncaring disposition towards everything that had happened was actually a mental barrier that had been subconsciously erected to keep out any more pain.

But now…now that there was someone else here, someone to cry with him and help with the pain, Shin'en's subconscious mind could no longer handle it.

He started crying again.

A pair of massive, muscular arms came to gently settle around him from behind as the Leviathan joined in giving his support. Were it not that he was now a husband, and more importantly, a father, were it that he was still a deranged psychopath wandering from decade to decade, he would've scoffed at this weakness. But now that he had had to hold his crying wife, had to hold his crying children and let them now that he was there, he was their father, and that he loved them dearly, he was a changed man.

And so the Leviathan had no problem with making a public display of his love for his brother.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"I will never be the same again," Shin'en intoned as he stared at his monument. "I will never be able to love anyone like I loved you, Naruko, but I will not close my heart off and damn myself to a life of self-loathing and self-pity. That would be a dishonor to your memory—to all of your memories. All of you…I love you."

He dipped down to grab some dirt, and tossed it upon the stone.

_What will you do now, Shin'en?_

He turned to look at his brother and sister, at the Leviathan, Perseus, and at the Xenomorph Goddess, Asteria. He was serious now, focused, done with grieving and grateful that they had helped him heal so rapidly and so effectively, for he would never have been able to pull himself together without their help.

"There is work to be done," the Dragon-Ghost of the Abyss answered, eyes hard and meaningful.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

_**Is this the end, then? Is this how Shin'en's story ends?**_

_**Not at all.**_

_**The Chaos War yet looms, though it's going to be looming for a while as I need to get back to my novel.**_

_**Is the sparingly mentioned **_**RWBY **_**crossover still on the table? Yes, but, once again, not for a while.**_

_**So…I didn't like how Kaguya just came in and stole the show from Madara, so I fixed that, and still had Madara wiped out anyway just to show that, for all that new, incredible power the Uchiha got, it was still nothing in the face of an emotionally charged, Omega Mode Shin'en. **_

_**Nor was Izanagi, who completely and totally ruined the second draft I had of this story, the first draft being a happy story in the Hidden Cloud with Karui and Omoi and Killer Bee and Yugito and etc. Yes, what I spent five years writing was the third draft, this dark, gritty tragic rendition. **_

_**Since this is the last chapter of this story, this your final opportunity for Reviews, your thoughts and opinions, your memories, and whatever else you have to say. **_

_**As the author of this trilogy, it's been an honor to tell this story, and I look forward to telling many more.**_

_**This is DelayedInspiration, hoping you're all happy and well, looking forward to the next chapter. **_


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